


The Masquerade Game

by RedBunnyBlueBunny



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-24
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:02:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 47,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26633302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedBunnyBlueBunny/pseuds/RedBunnyBlueBunny
Summary: Too many masks, a brave one, a stoic one, a calm one. Why did they have to wear so many? Maybe they would be able to put down their masks and just be themselves when they're alone, but of course, things don't always go according to plan.Eighth year Hogwarts, EWE.*Rated M for future chapters.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy
Kudos: 8





	1. New Beginnings?

**Author's Note:**

> None of the characters belong to me, only some changes in personality might have changed. I also read a lot of fanfic, so if there's some elements of my story that resembles another, just keep that in mind. I do not have any intent to plagiarise anyone's work, it might just be similar.
> 
> Also, I have a few celebrities I imaged as the characters when I was writing this, but please imagine whoever you wish for the characters. If I didn't mention them, you can assume I used the actors from the HP movies.
> 
> Hermione - Emma Watson
> 
> Draco - Tom Felton
> 
> Harry - Daniel Radcliffe
> 
> Ginny - Sophie Turner
> 
> Ron - Rupert Grint
> 
> Blaise - Han Hyun Min
> 
> Luna - Evanna Lynch
> 
> Hannah - Olivia Holt
> 
> Theo - Daniel Sherman
> 
> Astoria - Dianna Agron
> 
> Daphne - Leighton Meester
> 
> Pansy - Megan Fox

Draco Lucius Malfoy was a nervous wreck, but he obviously did not let it show. He had his usual mask plastered on, a well-rehearsed combination of annoyance and boredom. He wondered how his mother had convinced him to return for his seventh year, but it had ultimately been for the business. With his father out of the picture, he needed to take over the Malfoy business, what sort of business exactly, he was not too sure of himself. Taking his NEWTS would be helpful in the long run, or so his mother said. He lazily pushed his way onto the train and settled into an empty compartment. 

After the war, Draco and his mother had been pardoned by the new minister, Kingsley Shaklebolt, the things they had done during the war to help Harry was enough to get a pardon. His father on the other hand, was not as lucky. While him and his mother only had their wands confiscated until the ministry deemed them safe enough to return to, his father got a one way ticket to Azkaban and a lovely kiss from someone special. Draco only got his wand back the day before he left for Hogwarts, his mother still had to live wand-free for another two years. It was a given that he would need to report back to the Ministry every week and have his wand checked, but it was better than not having his wand with him. He knew that a life temporarily without magic was better than a life in Azkaban, so he was grateful when Potter and Granger had spoken for him during his and his mother’s trials. It didn’t mean that they were friends, Merlin forbid. 

The train had taken off just as he closed the compartment door, hoping he would not have to share it with anyone else. He decided against getting too comfortable just yet, he had a feeling that a few pesky Gryffindors might think it brave to bother a Slytherin and former Death Eater. So, he just took out a book to read instead, a muggle book, A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin. Just because he was a pureblood it did not mean he could not appreciate muggle literature; literature and music were probably the few things he thought muggles managed to do correctly. It was a book he had not yet read but it had been highly recommended by the shopkeeper. 

Just as he was about to begin reading, the compartment door slid open. From the corner of his eye, he noticed a brown and black mass entering. 

“Get out.” he growled without fully looking up from his book. 

“Good morning to you too, Malfoy.” A familiar female voice said. 

Realizing who his new compartment companion was, he let out a sigh, “What do you want, Granger?”

“Nothing really, just that all the other compartments are full, and yours is the only one without more than four people in it.” She said as she placed her trunk under the seat opposite his. 

“You can’t be serious.” He didn’t have to think much to see where this was going, or rather, already went. 

“Oh, suck it up Malfoy, it’s just for a few hours. I’m sure you’ll survive just fine.” She huffed as she sat down. 

“Why don’t you go find wonder boy and the weasel? I’m sure they would be more than happy to let you squeeze in with them,” he asked, noticing that dumb and dumber were not with her.

“Harry and Ron aren’t on the train, for your information, they’ll be arriving tomorrow.” 

He was honestly surprised that they decided to come back, he thought that they would have just gone straight to the Auror department, but he supposed that even Aurors needed to get their NEWTS too. “Whatever, just don’t expect small talk.” He gave up. 

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” And with that, she was dead to the world, lost in one of her many books, he followed soon after. 

The train ride felt at least two times longer than it usually was, Granger being in the same compartment didn’t exactly help pass the time. But alas, he was just trying to get through the year with no problems, for once he hoping it would be a boring year. 

When the train finally rolled to a stop, he practically jumped out of his seat. Granger was still at it with one of her books, he ignored her and grabbed his trunk and headed off the train. 

“Malfoy!” Another familiar voice caught his attention, he had hoped there would be a few friendly faces this year. Just as Draco turned to locate where his friend was, Blaise Zabini crashed into him and swung his arm around his neck. “I didn’t see you on the train, where were you?” 

“I was stuck in the same compartment as Granger, don’t ask, I don’t want to relive it.” He held out a hand and stopped his friend before he was bombarded with questions. “Your mother forced you back here too?”

“What do you think? If it weren’t for her, I would be baking in the Bahamas right now.” His dark-skinned friend replied him. “But you know how my mother is with education. ‘You must study hard or you won’t get anywhere in life.’ You can take the witch out of Korea, but you can’t take the Korea out of the witch.” He imitated his mother and sighed. 

“How much more do you want to bake yourself? Anymore baking, and you’d burn, oh wait, that’s me.” The two Slytherins laughed as they headed for the carriages. 

The laughter and talking from the other students had died down by the time they reached the carriages, the anxious low mummers was probably due to do with the fact that a most of them could now see what was pulling the carriages, including Draco and Blaise. Most students had been blissfully ignorant to their existence before this. 

“Shit, they’re proper terrifying, aren’t they?” Blaise remarked, a sad reminder that so many of them could see the Thestrals now. 

“Yeah, terrifying.” Draco replied half-heartedly, not taking his eyes off the creatures that he found oddly beautiful, in their own sad way. 

He hopped into a carriage that had two other students in it, both Slytherins and none of them gave Draco a second glance. Draco preferred if everyone was like them, and just ignore him. Merlin knows how many gawks and hateful glares he’s gotten over the span of the last six months. 

“I can’t wait until this year is over.” Draco said as he leaned his head back against the cool metal of the carriage and closed his eyes and tried to picture how his ideal year would go. It would involve him not getting into any fights, both physical and verbal, and people avoiding him as much as humanly possible. However simple that wish was, it still seemed highly unlikely going off his track record. He was still slightly hopeful for a “peaceful” year and had hoped for the best. Who knows? This year could surprise all of them.  
________________________________________________________________________

Her train ride was a quiet and unusual one. She liked the silence, she could finally get started on her ever-growing pile of to-be-read books. Other than the brief interaction with Malfoy, neither of them had spoken to the other, and she was perfectly fine with that. She would have preferred if he had at least tried to be a little more pleasant, but she supposed this conversation was civil enough. 

As soon as the train had reached the station, Draco jumped out of his seat which gave her small fright. She knew there was going to be a long line of students waiting for the carriages, so she decided to give it a few more moments before she finally packed up her things and joined the rest of the students outside. She also knew that a lot more students would be able to see the Thestrals now, her included. 

“Do you think they know that more people can see them now?” A voice directly behind her said and she let out a scream. A head of long auburn hair fell over her shoulders, which could only mean that Ginny Weasley had found her. Hermione let out a huge sigh of relief.

“Merlin’s beard Gin, don’t do that to me. I nearly hexed you!” Hermione slapped the red heads arm slightly. Ginny just stuck her tongue out at her and helped her to her feet. 

“I didn’t see you on the train, why didn’t you come find us?” Ginny asked. 

“I couldn’t find any of you, the train was more packed than I expected. I ended up sharing a compartment with Malfoy.” 

“Malfoy?!” Ginny said a little too loudly for Hermione’s liking. She gave Ginny a pained look. “But damn ‘Mione, Malfoy. He actually let you stay?”

“I know, I was surprised too. I thought he was going to hex me out. But we didn’t speak much, I even got to finish two books.” Hermione added with a proud look on her face. She hadn’t read anything that fast in months. Hermione and the most of the remaining upper year students and their families had volunteered to help rebuild Hogwarts after the War had ended, she even helped clean up and repair the Burrow. All that hard work left her little time to properly immerse herself in a book. 

“Well, I’m famished, I wonder what they prepared for us.” Ginny dragged her friend into an empty carriage, they were one of the last students to leave, which meant they got a whole carriage to themselves. 

“I wonder who McGonagall will choose as Head Boy and Girl.” Hermione thought. 

“You know you’re definitely going to be Head Girl,” the ginger winked at her, “but I really don’t know who Head Boy could be. Maybe Neville or maybe even Ernie.” 

“Maybe.” Hermione chewed the insides of her cheek, still thinking of possible candidates. But in the back of her mind, she thought of one other possible student that the title of Head Boy could go to, and she hoped she wasn’t right.

When they were planning out the restoration they had tried to change as little of the overall aesthetic Hogwarts naturally had, some changes had to be made. Hermione knew more than anyone else that Hogwarts was different. Aside from the giant mural in front of the Great Hall that had all the names of the fallen from the battle, the second biggest change had been the Great Hall, where there once used to be four long benches for each house, it was replaced by dozens of smaller round tables that each had four chairs. Each chair then corresponded with the four house colours, red, blue, green and yellow. 

As most of the students didn’t know what to do, they all stood around the edges of the hall. The front of the hall had not changed, the long table where the professors sat was still positioned there along with the elaborate gold podium in the center. Behind the long table, the large stained-glass window that had been shattered during the battle, had been redone with a beautiful picture of all magical creatures, humans, and animals existing in harmony with one another. As with most things in the magical world, the window moved, and it was beautiful watching the different multi-coloured beings interact with one another. 

It was only natural that Professor McGonagall been elected headmaster, and she was now sitting in the middle of the professors table. She was watching all the students make their way into the hall, and when the last student had found a spot along the walls of the Great Hall, and the massive doors closed, only then did she move to stand at the podium. 

“Good evening students, and welcome back to Hogwarts,” She greeted with a smile. “I’ll first address the most obvious confusion that everyone seems to be having, seating arrangements. Each table will now only seat four students, as you can obviously tell, but each table must have one student per house before any meal can be served. Don’t worry, this will only be the case during meal times. During any other time of day, the tables will revert to the long tables you are all accustomed to. Now before you take your seats, we shall begin the sorting ceremony.”

The ceremony did not last as long as Hermione had expected, there were probably around 20 new students, half the amount compared to when Hermione had been a first year. Once they were sorted, the first years continued to stay huddled together in one corner of the hall. 

“Now that the ceremony has finished, everyone can take a seat.”

And with that all done, the students began to move and fill up the tables. Hermione found a table that had a Ravenclaw boy she had never seen before and a girl from Slytherin she vaguely recognized, but could not quite place her. Shortly after, a boy from Hufflepuff joined them and bread and butter appeared in the center of the table. 

“I guess we can start eating,” The Slytherin girl said as she reached forward for a piece of bread. “I’m Astoria by the way, Astoria Greengrass.” 

Greengrass, that’s why she looked familiar, Hermione knew of her sister Daphne. 

“Nice to meet you, I’m Sean Adley,” The Hufflepuff boy said. “What year are you in?” 

“Sixth. How about you?” Astoria replied. Hermione was surprised at just how nice this Slytherin girl was, considering she had the misfortune of having encountered Daphne’s rage more than once. 

“Fifth year,” Sean replied. “Kind of nervous for my O.W.L.s, even if the year had just started.” 

“Oh don’t be,” Hermione said, wanting to get involved in the conversation, “they aren’t as hard as everyone thinks they are.” 

“That’s easy for you to say, you’re Hermione Granger.” The Ravenclaw boy chimed in with admiration. “I don’t even know how I got into Ravenclaw, I’m shit at my studies and I have no clue what I’m going to do for my O.W.L.s.”

“Well, I had to start from somewhere didn’t I?” Hermione just replied. “Memorizing isn’t useful, you need to actually understand what you’re reading. And you’re smarter than you give yourself credit for, you really need to start thinking positively.” 

“Do you have any tips for a worried student like me?” Sean asked, bread crumbs flying from his mouth. 

“Simple, read and put what you think you know to practical use. Keep repeating until you actually understand it. And if you keep failing, just ask a professor or an upper year student for help, there’s no harm in asking for help.” Hermione simply said. 

“That’s actually good advice, I’m going to steal that for myse-” Astoria’s attention was cut off by the sound of a student yelling.

“I WILL NOT BE SITTING WITH SUCH FILTH!” A boy bellowed. Hermione turned to face the source of the yelling. The disruption had come from an older boy, either a sixth year, from Slytherin. At the table Professor Flitwick was trying to get the student to sit with Dennis Creevey, Luna and Hannah. His anger seemed to be aimed at a nervous looking Dennis. 

At the sound of the commotion, Headmaster McGonagall had stepped away from the podium and moved towards the Slytherin boy. She said something to Professor Flitwick and he walked back to the professors table, thankful to be relieved from the situation. 

“What is the problem here Mr. Avery?” She asked calmly. 

“The problem here is that I should not have to sit and dine with blood traitors and mudbloods.” The boy spat out, still eyeing Dennis. Hermione slowly moved her arm to cover the scar of the slur that Bellatrix had so kindly given her. It was a subconscious move, despite the war having ended, she still felt like her heritage could get her killed, and this boy was not making her worries go away. 

“Mr. Avery, if you do not wish to comply with the new rules that were put in place to cease the ridiculous thought that one’s blood really matters, you may go to another school where they allow such childish and immature behaviour and ideology. But since you are currently a student under my roof, I suggest you put your prejudices aside and take a seat unless you do not wish to eat, which would not bother me one bit.” And with that, the headmaster turned and headed back to the front of the hall. By the time she made it back to the front of the hall, the boy still hadn’t moved, he just stood and stared daggers at everyone. 

“Now, I’m sure many of you are wondering why the tables have been changed so drastically.” There was a short moment where mummers of guesses and theories from the students had erupted, but quickly died once the headmistress continued. “As we here at Hogwarts value education and learning from past experiences, we will be doing everything in our power to reduce and correct any misinformation or tension between houses. The war had devastated too many lives for no changes to be made. And as a precaution for any future conflict, we want all students to be able to talk and understand their peers from different houses and backgrounds. I would encourage everyone to get to know one another, it’ll make meal time more pleasant, and maybe you’ll even make a friend or two.” 

Even though Hermione had been a part of the restoration, she didn’t know about this part of the plan. It was a brilliant one, however, getting some students to cooperate would proove to be a whole other hurdle. 

“Now, enough formalities, we shall begin the sorting ceremony and after, the feast begin.” McGonagall announced, and each table filled with food. The Avery boy, who was still standing, looked at the tempting food and Hermione could tell he was contemplating sitting down just for the food, but he resisted and just continued to stand. 

“It’s a shame that he is sticking by whatever garbage his parents drilled into his head, the beef is absolutely delicious!” Astoria exclaimed. Hermione looked at the Slytherin girl, surprised that she was so open minded, considering she had probably grown up hearing the same things as he had. 

“Do you believe in any of that Pureblood supremacy bullshit?” The Ravenclaw boy had asked, he still had not introduced himself.

“Not anymore, thankfully. Having made more than just Pureblood friends taught me as much. Sure, I was as prejudiced as any other Pureblood Slytherin child when I first arrived, but my first friends was a halfblood and a muggleborn. They slowly broke every stereotype and prejudice I had over the years.” She replied, taking a bite of the mashed potatoes that she had piled onto her plate. 

The rest of the meal had gone by rather smoothly, Hermione had learnt that the Ravenclaw boy’s name was Charles Rodney and he was a muggleborn like herself. Astoria and Sean, being purebloods, had asked them questions about the muggle world, even though they had friends that were muggleborns, they hadn’t had many chances to learn much about the world outside of magic. 

“Well, for one, I know that writing with inkwells and quills is stupid. Why can’t we just use pencils like any other school in this century?” Charles brought up. “It’s not like the magical world has never heard of graphite! They have haven’t they?” 

Hermione chuckled, she had been wondering the same thing for years, but never really questioned it. Her mind had been filled with memorizations of whatever subjects she had picked, how to defeat Voldemort or whatever stupid thing Harry and Ron were up to whenever she wasn’t around. It was a shame that they didn’t get a chance to further discuss the topic as McGonagall was standing in front of the podium once again. 

“I hope everyone enjoyed their meal, and I am sure everyone is eager to get to bed but I have one last announcement to make. The professors and myself have discussed all the possible candidates for which students shall be the head prefects for this year, and we have decided to nominate Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy for the positions. If these two students could meet me before going to your dorms, I shall be waiting by the doors.” Headmaster McGonagall announced, “Now, if the upper year students could lead the first years to their dorms, that would be all for announcements tonight, take your time finishing dinner. Welcome back students.” 

No one spoke for a few seconds, before the whole hall erupted in animated murmuring.


	2. Apple Pie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song recs:
> 
> Rob Thomas - Little Wonders
> 
> Tiffany - I Think We're Alone Now
> 
> IU - Eight (Acoustic Version)

Draco Malfoy. That was all he heard.

Do you know those instances when you're not paying attention in a conversation and everything sounds like it would if you were in a bubble, but when something catches your attention, like your name, and whatever bubble you were in had popped and everything comes into focus once again? That was what it was like for Draco.

He had been too busy trying to ignore all the death stares the people at the table had been shooting his way when he had sat down. He didn't know any of them, he didn't even bother to try and recognize anyone, he had just sat down as the emptiness in his stomach was the only thing his brain could focus on. He was in the middle of shoveling food down his throat when he heard his name, his head popped up at the mention of his name. But as he wasn't paying attention, he didn't know why his name was called, and he couldn't ask any of the people at his table because, chances are, they wouldn't reply to him. So instead he just looked for the next best thing, Blaise. However, Blaise had been mirroring Draco's actions and had a whole turkey leg in his mouth when Draco turned to look, he was clearly too engaged in eating to notice anything else.

So Draco did what Draco did best, he played it off, pretended he knew what was going on and just continued eating. He knew he would need answers soon, but for now, everyone was staring at him and he could not show any signs of weakness. 'Ignorance is bliss, yeah right, ignorance is death. It is always better to know too much than too little,' he thought. Once dinner had passed, all Draco wanted to do was sleep, but he needed answers. He walked up to the only person he knew would have paid attention.

"Granger," he said as he approached her.

"Malfoy," she replied, appearing calmer than he had expected. Good food tends to do that to people.

"Why did McGonagall call out my name?" he asked.

"Wow, way to go for completely zoning out," she started, but continued, "you have been nominated as Head Boy. Congratulations."

He nearly choked. Head Boy? Him? Was McGonagall completely out of her mind? Why would anyone nominate him to be in charge of the whole student body? He began wondering if this was just some bad joke.

"Who's Head Girl then?"

"You're looking at her." Hermione said as she held out her hand. Draco just gave her a questioning look. "If we are to be working together, I would hope we at least be civil with one another."

He stared at it for a few seconds, did she really think he was going to touch her hand? A few more seconds passed before Hermione put her hand down and just sighed.

"You're not going to catch anything from shaking my hand. Come on, McGonagall is waiting for us." Hermione lead the way towards the doors.

"Headmistress." Hermione greeted, Draco just nodded his head in acknowledgment. Draco had never fully decided if he had liked or disliked the old witch. Yes, she was the Head of Gryffindor house and she was constantly reprimanding him and his friends for whatever mischief they had gotten into, but there was something about her that he had always admired, he just couldn't place a finger on it.

"Welcome back, I am happy to see the both of you. I hope the both of you have decided to accept our offer as Head Prefects?" She asked, looking first at Hermione who was already shaking her head enthusiastically, then at Draco. Draco thought about it for a few more moments, but ultimately agreed that being Head Boy would provide useful experience in working in a group, so he nodded as well. McGonagall pulled her lips back in a thin smile. "Perfect, I did hope you would say yes. I wanted to show the two of you your new quarters for the year and to get you two started on your duties as Head Prefects. As there are many duties that you two will be in charge of, you will have a dorm to yourselves." And with that, McGonagall started walking, not looking to see if they followed behind her.

They walked for a couple minutes in complete silence and stopped in front of a large painting that was flanked by two columns that reached the ceiling. The painting was a simple portrait of the founders around a table playing chess, which was apparently intriguing enough that they didn't notice the people standing in front of them.

Draco wasn't exactly pleased that he was going to be living with Granger for the entire year, but at least that was only one roommate as opposed to multiple. He could spend most of his time either in his room or in the Slytherin common room, avoiding being near her was the main point.

"Now your living quarters are behind this painting, so the two of you will have to come up with your own password. You may change the password as many times as you wish, but only when both are present and have agreed on a mutual password. I urge the both of you to not tell any of your friends the password. This is to ensure your personal safety and privacy. So please, keep the passwords to yourselves. Good night you two." And with those words, McGonagall left them.

"It seems like a Gryffindor and a Slytherin are the Heads this year. Well, good luck to the both of you, and try not to kill one another. We know how these two fight." Rowena Ravenclaw told the two of them, the last part of her sentence meant for Salazar and Godric. "Have you thought of your password yet?"

"How about something simple, like 'unity', since it's especially important this year?" Granger suggested turning to face him.

"Too obvious, aren't you supposed to be smart?" Hermione just rolled her eyes. "What about 'apple pie', it's something random and simple enough to remember?"

"Hmm, well I do like apple pie." Hermione thought for a few seconds, but finally nodded. She then turned to face the portrait of the founders "I, Hermione Jean Granger, Head-girl."

"And I, Draco Lucius Malfoy, Head-boy," continued Draco.

"Have agreed to use 'apple pie' as our password." Concluded Hermione. The four founders nodded, and the canvas swung open.

Upon entering the common room, the first thing that caught his attention was just how large it was for two people. It was a rectangular room with three doors at the other end. Upon entering, on the right side, there was a kitchenette that had a small oven, a stovetop, and sink, on either side there were cabinets. There was also a large dining table in between the kitchenette and the other side of the room. On his left, there was a large light grey fireplace against one wall, two rectangular couches, one maroon and one emerald, a wooden coffee table, and a substantial collection of books along the other wall. The walls were painted a light grey and maroon, the floor was a beautiful deep blue colour.

Granger went towards the room on the left, so Draco went towards the room on the right.

The room was painted a white colour and the furthest wall had floor-to-ceiling windows and there were very few furniture in the room itself, a full sized bed, a modest sized closet, a large desk, a simple cushioned chair and a long wall shelf above the table. When he entered the room, his trunk appeared in front of his bed and his room began to alter to his preferences. On one wall, there was a wooden bookshelf that was filled with books of the subjects he was going to be taking this year, next to it was his closet, it was dark and big enough for all his robes and clothes. The bed had changed to his own four-post, king-sized bed at the manor and had forest green bed linen, there were two small light grey nightstands on either side of the bed. A large black leather couch stood at the foot of the bed. The furthest wall was made entirely of floor-to-ceiling windows, with a large desk at one end of the wall. Lastly, there was a beautiful, light-coloured upright piano against the wall that had another door, he assumed it led to the bathroom. It didn't take long for him to settle into his new room, it was essentially the perfect room for him.

After a nice long shower, Draco exited the bathroom and casted a silencing charm on his room. He walked over to his trunk, and took out the violin that was neatly packed in its holder. He had not touched his violin since he was fourteen, with an impending war and the Dark Lord rising once again, playing had sat on the back burner. Narcissa was a very big advocate of music, both classical and modern, and had taught him how to play both the violin and the piano. She had preferred to teach Draco classical music, as it was more gentle and calming to her ears. When he was younger, Draco would play for his mother whenever she was feeling stressed or down. He would still play for her whenever she asked, but as he grew up, her requests were few and far between, and eventually they had just stopped.

His father on the other hand, had been less enthusiastic about his son playing instruments. When he was ten, his father had slammed his fingers with the fallboard and shattered all the bones in seven of his fingers. His father had simply sneered and said, he said he did not want his son wasting his time on such pointless activity, when he could be practicing magic for he was to enter Hogwarts the following year. Tough love he supposed. That night Draco had asked the house elves to heal his hands, he didn't want his mother to find out about this, she had enough on her mind.

He had taken the violin and started to play. He was surprised that he still remembered how to, and wanted to test his memory on the songs he could still remember. He started with a simple tune, then he progressed to more complex songs, like Beethoven's 'Für Elise' and Bach's 'Grande Valse Brillante'. He was a big fan of classics, whether it be music, art or literature. But his favorite song to play, on the piano especially, would have to be 'Mariage d'Amour' by Richard Clayderman. He loved the way sad songs sounded as a whole and the way they expressed the composers feeling so clearly, he could relate to them the most.

Whatever Draco chose to play would usually reflect how he felt, and as he had to keep all his emotions bottled up for so long, all his emotions fled out of him as he played on. He played as though the music could somehow heal him, as though he could drown in the music and let all his worries and problems float away. He hadn't felt this free in years, he had forgotten all about the world and all the worries he had had over the years. He stopped playing after what seemed like hours. His fatigue had gotten the best of him, he never wanted to stop playing ever again.

That was the first night Draco Malfoy did not have any nightmares, whatsoever, in years.

Hermione's periwinkle room had a simple full bed with lilac sheets and matching pillows, a round bedside table and an eggplant beanbag. The rest of her room was practical, a large light brown study desk at one corner, a wall length bookshelf and a simple closet. She could say that the bookshelf was definitely her favourite part of her new room, it held all her favourite books, both for school and for leisure. The nightstand beside her bed had a couple picture frames on it, an unmoving one of her and her parents and a moving picture of her with Harry and Ron. There was also fairy lights creeping along the posters of her bed in place of a bedside lamp.

Hermione walked over to a door that was one the same wall as her bookshelf, it was the bathroom and instantly noticed there were two other doors leading out of it. This could only mean that she had to share a bathroom with Malfoy. She didn't really care, but she thought a certain blonde would. The bathroom was rather big, and it had pale yellow walls and blue floor tiles and had a big tub at one end of the room, two toilets, and two sinks, each with cabinets underneath it. Nothing out of the ordinary, the only thing they had to share would be the bathtub, but she supposed that would not be a problem.

After she had settled into her new room, she had taken a quick shower, gotten into comfy sweats and a tank top, something to help her feel more comfortable. She hadn't seen or heard from Draco since they had entered their dorm, their conversation went as far as Head Prefects duties. The last thing she remembered was thinking before she drifted into a deep sleep was that it was going to be an interesting year.

Hermione awoke with a start the next morning, before the sun had even risen. She had momentarily forgotten where she was, then slowly began to remember her new dorm, and her new roommate. She had woken up this early nearly every day, courtesy of the many months she, Harry and Ron had spent searching for Horcruxes. She used to get up before the boys to check on the wards and the protection spells she had put up, to ensure no snatchers or Death Eaters had found their camp. Then after the war, it was useful to wake up early during the restoration efforts, the earlier they woke, the more time in a day they had to work on the castle. Now, it had become a habit for her to wake up this early, a habit and a mercy. It had been many months since Voldemort had died and the war was won, but she had nightmares from the events of the war. Most of her nightmares involved the day at Malfoy Manor, the day she was carved into like a pumpkin on Halloween.

The constant looking over their shoulders had taken its toll on all three of them, her more so than boys. Harry had Ginny to talk to, Ron had his whole family, but Hermione had no one. During the war, she had feared that something might happen to her parents, so she had made the painful decision to erase their memories and placed them on a one way plane to Australia, because unlike most of the people in her life, her parents would not have a fighting chance against the Death Eaters if they were ever found. She had to hold her head high and act like everything was all right, she always did. She grew so used to wearing the mask of someone who always knew the right answer, she started believing it herself, but she didn't have all the answers, she never did.

This morning, she woke up, got started on a book, then watched the sun rise. She loved watching the rising sun, the colours it gave off and the serene atmosphere. She liked the peace and quiet, she missed the days where she could sit under a tree and read a book, without fear of anyone attacking her. Even now that all of Voldemort had been destroyed, there were still former Death Eaters and their sympathizers who were after all of them. She was still looking over her shoulder.

An hour and a half had passed before she had stopped reading and went up to her room to get ready for the day ahead. This year, they gave students a day after they arrived to get settled and catch up with one another before classes started. So Hermione had a free day ahead, and she didn't know what she wanted to do, she hadn't had a free day in years. Harry and Ron were to arrive that evening, and she couldn't be more excited for their arrival, but there was a lot of time before then. Well, she was certain she was going to get some breakfast before anything else.

She headed down to the Great Hall for some breakfast at exactly seven thirty, as it was a free day, there were only a few students in the hall. She managed to find a table that was missing a Gryffindor student, so she greeted everyone and sat down.

Luna and Astoria looked up at her and greeted her with smiles, she did not know the Hufflepuff boy's name, he looked much younger than them.

"Good morning, I'm surprised you're all up so early today," Hermione greeted them.

"Waking up early helps prepare me for the year ahead. I'm trying to train my body to wake up earlier." Astoria replied. Luna just nodded in response, the blonde always had an air of mystery around her, as hard as she tried, Hermione could not read that girl's expressions.

"What's your name?" Hermione turned to the young boy.

"Henry ma'am, Henry Goffry. I'm a second year." The boy replied.

"Well it's nice to meet you Henry, I'm Hermione Granger." Hermione smiled at the boy, "let's eat."

Astoria was already filling her plate with toast and baked beans, while Luna sipped at her tea. Hermione gathered some beans and eggs onto her plate before reaching for a piece of toast. Breakfast continued in pleasant conversation, Hermione was surprised when she found out that Luna and Astoria had already known each other since their second year.

"I had never met someone as insightful as Luna before I came here, we have some interesting conversations about the different creatures that live in the castle." Astoria said, and she seemed to genuinely like Luna. Where most people saw a strange and aloof girl, Hermione and Astoria knew that Luna had brains and was more perceptive than most people, she saw things most people would easily miss.

About half an hour later, she bid everyone at the table farewell and headed off, where to she didn't know, she would let her legs take her somewhere.

She had been walking for about fifteen minutes before she finally reached her destination, the library, she had taken the scenic route. She entered the familiar hall, lined with all the books that they managed to salvage, although most of the books were either donated or new. She settled into her reading nook, it was located in a small corner and had a large table and comfortable seating. Not many people passed by this section of the library so it was perfect for when she needed to focus and get things done. From her seat, she could only be seen from one other table that was quite a ways away, she preferred not being seen when she was studying or reading, it allowed her to fully use her facial expressions without fear of getting judged. Some people read aloud when they study, but Hermione would react to the words she was reading with interesting expressions to say the least.

Eventually, she decided to check out a book and headed out of the library. She headed towards the lake and sat under a nice, big tree. Reading was always best when you had an amazing view, it helped with imagining the world the authors were trying to describe. Fantasy was one of her favourite genres to read, the amount of imagination and creativity one needed to come up with a whole new world and characters with complex backstories, it just fascinated her.

Eventually, enough time had passed before she realised that it was almost time for the boys to arrive. She quickly packed up and headed to the arrival location, she didn't want to miss spending any more time with them.


	3. They're Friends?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song recs:
> 
> Electric Night Orchestra - Mr. Blue Sky
> 
> Gerard Way ft. Ray Toro - Happy Together (original by The Turtles)
> 
> Finneas - Break My Heart Again

Waking up from a dream for the first time in years, and not a nightmare, was the best feeling he could have asked for. He felt refreshed, like he had just woken up from the first proper sleep he had since he arrived at Hogwarts. Needless to say, he was in a good mood, and it only got better when he realised that today was a free day, classes started tomorrow, so he could do whatever he wanted today.

He stayed in bed for a few more minutes, relishing the rare opportunity to sleep in. Even before everything went south, his mother never let him sleep past 8.30am, even on holidays, it was proper to not waste the day. When he finally left his bed, it was 9am. He took his time getting ready before grabbing breakfast.

When he left his room, he noticed Granger had already left, her door was left open. 'Not very vigilant now is she?' He thought, he would've expected that the golden girl would be more protective of her things. He went down to the Great Hall and searched for an empty table, the last thing he wanted right now was bad company to ruin this great mood. He settled himself into a table that was missing a Slytherin, he didn't know any of the other students, and soon as the food appeared, he shoved as much food into his mouth and left. He was done within ten minutes.

He didn't know what to do with the free day he had, so he decided to go to the Slytherin common room, maybe Blaise or Theo would be there. Walking to the dungeons was as familiar as walking to his room back in the Manor, his body just led him there. He was slightly amazed at how well they were able to restore Hogwarts to an almost exactly how it had been before the war. There were probably around ten students lazing about in the common room, a few first years and a few upper years. He made his way to the luscious green couch and sunk into it, waiting for either Blaise or Theo to show up, he knew they liked to wake up late. He picked up a random book that was laying on the coffee table to pass the time, it was a fourth year potions book.

When at last Blaise entered the common room, Draco had read more than half the book while waiting for them.

"It's almost lunch time," Draco noted, not looking up from the book.

"It's a free day. Let me sleep, mom." Blaise rolled his eye and sat on the couch opposite from Draco.

"Where's Theo?"

"Here." Theo said as he made his way from the hallway leading to the dorm rooms to stand beside the couch Blaise was sitting on.

"Shall we make our way to the Great Hall? I'm craving roast chicken." Blaise said as he rubbed his stomach. That boy could eat a whole cow and still have room left for pudding. But they still stood up and walked over together. They talked about the latest Quidditch news and what positions they were going to try out for this year. With Adrian Tavers as captain, they would all need to try out for the positions again. Draco didn't know if the 8th years would be able to join since they were older, but he didn't know of any notice that they couldn't, so he assumed that meant that they could.

When they arrived at the Great Hall, Blaise made his way towards a table rather quickly. Draco and Theo looked at each other before he saw who Blaise was sitting with, Hermione Granger smiled up at Blaise as he sat down.

"Why's he sitting with her?" Theo asked. But Draco didn't know the answer. What was he even doing near her, let alone talking to her like they were friends? Were they actually friends? He wondered how Blasie could even stand being in her general vicinity, he had been doing all he could to spend as little time together as possible. He knew that it had been his decision to accept the Head Boy's role, and with it, all the less favourable parts of it. He still couldn't stand her, she was still the same know-it-all as she always had been. The only difference now, Draco didn't think much of her blood status when he looked at her.

"Come on, let's find a place for us to sit." Draco decided he was going to thoroughly interrogate Blaise when they had the time.

Lunch passed rather quickly, Blaise said he had something to do before classes started and Theo had agreed to meet someone after lunch, they didn't give any specifications, they never did. Slytherins are self-sufficient, they do not need groups of people to get by. Now alone, Draco decided to get started on some readings for the classes he had picked, better get a head start than be left straggling behind. The one subject he had not been able to avoid was Muggle studie, it was now compulsory for all students who were pureblood, they had to take at least one term's worth of the subject or they were not allowed to graduate. So he decided to head to the library to get started on some recommended materials.

He knew the best places to sit in the library, but the new layout of the library was slightly different from the original. There was one spot he used to love, it was by the windows that had a beautiful view of the lake, and he searched for that spot, hoping it was still there. It took him a few minutes before he found the spot, and a few more minutes before he found a few books on muggle studies that Madam Prince had suggested.

After a while of reading, he looked out the window, the view always calmed him whenever he felt stressed. It had a beautiful view of the mountains surrounding Hogwarts, the lush green forests and calming scenery always made him feel more at peace, especially when his mind was whirring at breakneck paces.

After digesting as much literature on muggles as he could stand, which was about four hours worth of reading time, he decided that he had done his part for the day and headed off to dinner. On the way out of the library, he had bumped into someone hard enough to knock whatever that was in their hands onto the floor. He muttered an apology and looked up at the person he had walked into, green eyes looked back at him, Astoria Greengrass.

They exchanged awkward greetings, then she hurried away. Although their families had known one another since way before either of them were born, he was not as familiar with her as compared to her sister, Daphne. There were efforts made on both ends, but they never clicked and just left it at that. He assumed she was a nice girl, at least she was not as much of a horror movie as her sister, now Daphne was a real princess. It didn't help that he knew that their parents had agreed that they were to be married sometime in the near future, it was common for Purebloods to arrange the marriages of their children. Even though he knew it was inevitable, he still didn't prefer it, and he would deny it if anyone asked, but he wanted to marry for love, not advantages.

When Harry and Ron finally arrived, Hermione rushed to greet them. They had decided to come back with their mind set on becoming Aurors, and for that, NEWTS would be required. Their arriving a day later was needed because they needed to sort out some specifics with the minister, and signed a contract that ensured them positions in the Auror training programme after they had taken their exams. Ron also used the extra day to spend with his family, they had taken to spending more time together after Fred's death, time together just meant more now.

Hermione was glad to see the two boys, it had been a few weeks since she had last seen them, they all had their own things going for them. The last she had seen the two boys was at the end of the restoration, they had worked on the castle with her, but after that Hermione had spent the remainder of her summer in her childhood home. She thought about renting an apartment, but it just felt better to be home, even if it was more quiet than she was used to. She knew where her parents were, in a small town outside Sydney, she had placed a spell that gave her periodical updates on their wellbeing and their location, if anything was amiss, she would be notified. She hadn't completely figured out how to reverse the obliviate she had cast on her parents almost a year ago, she wasn't even sure if it was possible to undo what had been done, memory spells were always tricky.

All the thoughts of her parents half a world away was pushed aside when she saw her two best friends exit the carriage.

"Harry! Ron!" Hermione yelled as she leapt into their open arms, their smiles were as wide as hers. She kissed both boys on the cheek and hugged them fiercely, a hug that would make Molly Weasley proud. And while it was true she always had feelings for Ron, the one time they both acted on their feelings felt awkward and wrong, it was like kissing a sibling. After the war, they had talked about it and agreed to remain as friends. It was definitely for the better, they were like brothers to her, anything more just didn't seem right.

"It's good to see you again 'Mione!" Ron said as Hermione hugged Harry, "good to see that your hugs are still as bone-crushing as ever."

"You know you love it." Harry laughed as they started walking towards the Gryffindor common room. "I heard you got Head Girl, like we all knew you would."

"I wouldn't say that we all knew that, nonetheless, it's still an honour." She hooked her arms in both boys arms. "Well, lets go to the common room, everyone's waiting to see you both." And with that, the three best friends were on their way. After a quick visit to the Gryffindor common room, they headed out for lunch, which both boys were equally excited for.

As she was talking to Padma about the classes they were taking and their year end exams, she felt a tapping on her shoulder. Padma looked slightly weary, but when as Hermione turned around, all she saw was the trademark Zabini smile and she knew why Padma had reacted the way she did. Not many people knew they were friends, actually, no one really knew they were friends. She suspected that Harry had figured out that she was spending some time with him on her own accord, but he never asked her about it since Blaise hadn't done anything to him.

"Blaise! Sit, sit. I haven't seen you in so long!" Hermione smiled up at him. The dark skinned boy, as handsome as ever, took a seat and introduced himself to Padma, who had relaxed a little after observing Hermione's warm greeting. They hugged one another as they waited for a Hufflepuff to join their table.

After lunch, the rest of the day was spent in the common room with Harry, Ron, Ginny and a few other fellow Gryffindor students. They just sat around, talking about their summers, Harry and Rons' training, and the restoration of the school. The hours quickly passed, the relaxed atmosphere was something they hadn't felt in some time, and before they knew it, it became late and they needed to sleep since classes were to start in the morning. They bid one another goodnight before they made their way to their rooms.

As Hermione made her way back to the Heads dormitory, something felt off. She couldn't shake off the eerie feeling that someone was watching her, following her. The feeling had become so intense that she picked up her pace, almost running. When she had made it to the painting, she quickly whispered the password and shut the portrait behind her, her breathing had become ragged from the sudden overwhelming feeling of panic. It took a few minutes before her breathing was back to normal and calmed down enough to try to think about what she had just experienced. It could have just been that it was dark and she hadn't completely gotten over the horrors of the war, and being back in Hogwarts had brought back all those horrible memories. When she had calmed down enough, she made her way to her room and slept with her lights on.

When Hermione awoke the next day, the first thing that came to her mind was the uncomfortable experience from last night. A shiver went down her spine from the memory. What made her so scared that she decided to run? She knew it was late, so there shouldn't have been anyone wandering around, and she was pretty certain she didn't hear anyone, or maybe she was just paranoid and overthinking everything. But whatever it was, she knew she wasn't going to get any answers from just lying on her bed, so she got ready for class and headed to breakfast early. She couldn't stand the thought of not knowing and not doing anything.

Even though she had left early, it wasn't even 6:30 in the morning yet, the Great Hall was almost full of students. It was usually like this at the beginning of the term, everyone was trying to stick to their New Years resolutions, resolutions such as going to class early, focus more in class, do homework on time, and others like that which most students would eventually forget as the term wore on. It didn't take long for Hermione to find a seat, at the table sat Luna, Hannah and Astoria, Hermione seemed to be seeing the blonde everywhere she went.

"Good morning." She greeted them as she sat down.

"Hermione, it's so nice to see you again." Hannah replied, she hadn't seen the girl since the war, "how've you been?"

"I'm definitely much better than the last time you saw me, slowly getting back into my pace." Hermione grabbed a piece of toast and started to put jam on it.

"Are you alright Hermione?" Luna asked, always the most perceptive one.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a bit tired this morning, I didn't get a good night's sleep I suppose." She tried to play it off as best she could, Luna looked at her for a while more before she nodded. "What are your classes for this year?"

"I've got charms, potions, defence against the dark arts, history, herbology, astronomy and muggle studies." Astoria replied her first.

"Oh, is charms your first class today?" That was Hermione's first class, she hoped she would have someone to walk to class with.

"No, my charms is on Wednesday's. It would've been fun to have that together though."

"I've got charms today if you're wondering." Luna said as she chewed her porridge.

"Oh great, we can walk together." Hermione perked up. She hadn't really spent much one-on-one time with the blonde witch, but she knew Luna was as honest and strong as it got. Not many knew, but Luna was also tortured at Malfoy Manor, for suspicion that she might know where Harry was or what he was doing. Not only did Luna know what Harry was doing, or at least she had an idea, but she didn't break at all in all those times they had tortured her. Her respect for the younger witch grew when she had confided in her.

After they were done with their breakfast, the four witches just sat around and chatted until it was almost time for classes to begin. Hermione bid the other two witches a good day and she set off for the charms classroom with Luna.

"I never got to say thank you." Hermione said a bit awkwardly.

"Whatever for?"

"For not telling them what we were doing when we were on the run."

"That's not something you have to thank me for. You're my friends, you would've done the same for me had it been me instead of Harry." Hermione didn't know how to reply to that, they were definitely friends, there's no doubt about that, but what she did was beyond what she imagined a friend would do. All she could feel was sincere thankfulness for the younger witch, thankful that she was her friend and thankful that she was as amazing a human being as she was.

When they entered the classroom, it was already filling up. Hermione moved to her favourite seat, the one right in front of the classroom, Luna had decided on a table somewhere in the middle instead. As she was unpacking her books, a bag thudded on the seat next to hers.

"Good morning beautiful." Blaise Zabini stood next to her.

"Well hello there stranger, long time no see." Hermione joked with the Italian.

"It's been a while," he replied, noticing the jest.

"Yes, because ten hours is such a long time ago. Oh, how did I manage to survive without you?" Hermione said with sarcasm dripping from her voice. Their friendship was built on their mutual inclination to sarcasm as well as intellect, it was a refreshing relationship compared to all her other friends, not that she loved them any less.

"Well, it's going to be a lot better with me in it now that I'll be around you all the time, so don't you worry." He winked at her, which sent her laughing. His attempts at "flirting" were always funny to watch, Hermione knew they weren't real because she knew his heart belonged to someone else already.

Within a few minutes, Professor Flitwick entered the room and the class began. The class went by quickly, seeing that the class was more revision than an actual class for Hermione. She already knew everything, and more, from the countless times she had read all the Charms books in the library. She quite liked the subject, she thought it was practical and useful in everyday life. Blaise was better behaved then he usually was, probably because he was sitting right at the front of the class and where Professor Flitwick could easily see him. They had a bit of casual conversation as they packed their bags to head to their next class.

"What's your next class?" Hermione asked as she picked up her bag.

"Transfiguration, what about you?"

"Same actually." They turned to face the door, she might as well walk with him since they're going to the same location.

"That's fun. I know Draco's in the class too, let me go grab him before he tries to slip away." Blaise said as he took a few big steps to grab the blonde boy. She hadn't noticed that Malfoy was in charms too, she assumed that Blaise would have sat next to him if he was. Hermione caught up to them just as Malfoy was giving Blaise a death stare for messing up his already messy hair. "Well children, we're going on an adventure!" He announced, his arm around Malfoy and dragging him along.

The walk to the classroom was short and entertaining. It was interesting seeing Malfoy interact with someone with their own brain and opinion, for as long as Hermione could remember, his only companions were Crabbe and Goyle, whose combined IQ probably couldn't power a potato battery even if they tried. Blaise didn't treat Malfoy as his superior, and Malfoy didn't treat Blaise like a moron who needed instructions on how to button their shirt, something she had never seen before. They treated each other as equals. She knew Crabbe and Goyle had returned as well, their huge figures were hard to miss.

With that happy thought, they arrived at the classroom along with the other students. She placed her bag atop a table that sat four students, two chairs were red and two green. She assumed that the colours of the chairs corresponded with the house of a student, and only students from the particular house could sit on the chair. For today's class, the chairs were red and green, Gryffindor and Slytherin. Their houses were having so many classes together, she could assume it was another precaution set in place in hopes to stop any interhouse prejudices, and it was the house of the snake and of the lion that were coldest to one another. She knew she would have to try and break through the ice and resentment that had long formed between the two houses, and she would need the Head Boy's help. How she was going to get his help, would be another problem on its own. He hadn't said a single word to her since they moved into their new dorms two nights ago, she hadn't seen him at all yesterday.

There was a new Transfiguration teacher, since Professor McGonagall was appointed Headmistress, she would not have the time to teach classes. The new professor was a small woman, she wore a pretty pink dress, nothing like what Umbridge wore, and had an eagle perched on her forearm. She had dark brown hair and startling blue eyes, she was also incredibly young, she looked no older than she was.

"Hello class. My name is Professor Merryweather. If you would please stand up, I would like to have a seating arrangement for the rest of the term." Professor Merryweather announced to the class. At the mention of a seating arrangement, the whole class groaned. The professor continued, "I will, however, allow you to choose, amongst the people who are already at the table you are sitting at, your partner, they have to be of a different house than yourself of course. They would be your partner for the term."

So, one by one, each student was assigned a table, Hermione was with Draco, Theodore Nott and Parvati Patil. She was thankful that she was with someone she got along with. This class went by smoothly, she mostly talked to Parvati, but she also tried to engage both Draco and Theo in any conversation they were having, the two boys didn't seem to want to talk and ignored her anytime she spoke to them.

She had Defense Against the Dark Arts taught by Professor Lanze Hanley, Herbology, taught by Professor Sprout and her last class was Potions, taught by Professor Slughorn for the rest of the day. The only thing left for the day was a prefect meeting before dinner. She tried to find Draco, hoping they could go over what they were to say in the meeting, but had no luck finding him. After her last class, she made her way to the prefect's meeting room and was surprised to see that Malfoy was there before her. He was sitting with his back towards her, facing the window that looked over the Forbidden Forest. She cleared her throat to indicate that she was in the room, he turned around at the sound and gave her a curt nod just as the other prefects entered the room.

She led the meeting, Malfoy only speaking when he needed to or when he was asked a question directly, but other than that, it was all Hermione. The meeting only took half an hour, after that, the rest left for the Great Hall, dinner was starting soon. The meeting was very productive, if she could say so herself, they had finalised the duty roster as well as partners for rounds each night for the next two weeks. She tidied up the meeting room to ease the house-elf's work load, then exited the room. She was about to go to the hall, but she remembered that she had completely forgotten about the Defense Against the Dark Arts homework she had gotten, she headed to the library to try to find a couple books that might help her. It was only first day of school, and there was already homework.


	4. In Dreams

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song recs:
> 
> Nathan Wagner - Don't Forget Me (pt. 1)
> 
> Jungkook - Still With Me
> 
> Ariana Grande - Tattooed Heart

The next morning, Draco headed to the first table missing a Slytherin student and sat down without even paying attention to who he was sitting with, this was his new ritual. When he looked up, he found 3 witches he didn't recognise staring straight at him, but once they had gotten used to the sight of him, they returned to their conversation and didn't try to engage him in any conversation, which he was grateful for.

He had a dream again the night before, which was weird as he usually had nightmares, although, this dream was unlike any he ever had. He was standing in the middle of a large entryway, the floors were white marble and there were black pillars lining the edges of the room, he assumed he was standing in a mansion, one he had never been in or even seen. The room was brightly lit with three beautiful chandeliers, he started making his way up the stairs when he was stopped by a hand grabbing his. He looked down to see a small boy, he had slightly curly blonde hair and big brown eyes, the boy was tugging on his hand, like he wanted to show Draco something. As soon as the little boy opened his mouth, Draco woke up. This was the second night in a row in over two years where he did not wake up screaming or covered in his own sweat.

"Earth to Draco, where are you buddy?" A pale hand was waving in front of his face. Draco shook his head and his eyes focused back, then he smacked the hand away.

"What do you want Theo?" Draco replied gruffly.

"You were zoned out for so long. What were you thinking about?"

"Just thinking about the first dream I had in over two years." He was always honest with his boys, there was no point lying, they were each other's families, since their own was too fucked up. Families don't lie to each other.

"A dream? Not a nightmare?" Blaise asked, his eyebrow raising, they both knew about his consistent nightmares, they had known since the first day he had one. Draco just nodded.

"Maybe it's a sign that everything's getting back to normal. Whatever normal after a war is, that is." Theo was never the smartest of the bunch, but he was the most optimistic.

"Whatever it is, it better not stop." Draco said more to himself than to the two boys.

They had followed Draco to the heads dorm after the prefects meeting, surprisingly both Theo and Blaise were prefects as well, something most people would never have expected from them.

"So what's it like living with the golden girl?" Theo asked.

"Nothing special, we've barely seen each other these two days. It's better that way, I won't lose my eyesight or my sanity." Draco scoffed. The two of them had only spent the hours they were asleep in the dorm, whether it was intentional or not on her part, that's the way it was. He had definitely been avoiding her as much as possible.

"Hermione's pretty chill once you get to know her. Trust me." Draco had been meaning to ask Blaise how he and girl-wonder had gotten to know each other.

"How did you get to talking to her in the first place? I never knew you were soft on her." Theo asked.

"It started off as a dare, I can't remember who dared me, was it Pansy or Daphne? Either way, they had dared me to go up and talk to her for five minutes straight, this was back in fourth year before the Yule Ball happened, so I just thought that she was still just the bushy haired nerd." Blaise started reminiscing, "she was in the library and so I just walked up to her. I didn't know what to talk about, so I just asked her about some homework we had gotten. Then I noticed a book she was reading, it was about the different methods of cooking using magic, and we started talking about that, and since I'm such an amazing chef, I gave her some tips. Eventually we just started greeting each other whenever we met, then it turned into actual conversations."

"So she's not as uptight as everyone thinks she is? Doesn't she reprimand you every time you do something wrong?" Theo asked sceptically.

"Oh, she's definitely uptight, just not as tightly wound as people think she is." Blaise laughed. He seemed fond of the witch, but Draco just brushed it aside, she was the same as ever. Even if Blaise thought she was a decent person, Draco was still doubtful about her.

After a good while of chatting, they left as it was getting late. After they left, Draco decided that he wasn't tired enough to sleep just yet, so he made his way to the piano and played a few songs from memory. It was an hour later when he went down to get a drink when he heard her enter. He heard her quietly greet him, but just walked past her and closed the door behind him. He continued playing until his eyelids felt heavy, and it was only after he could not keep them open was when he decided to call it a night.

In his dream, he saw the little boy again, but this time Granger was there too. They were in the same mansion, however this time the little boy clung to Granger instead of him. He was leading her down a hallway towards the left, she followed him with no hesitation, always the Gryffindor. As Draco was about to follow them, a fire started, it roared to life and continued to grow. Soon he was separated from the boy and Granger, she had turned back and stared at him, like she couldn't believe what she was seeing. Soon enough, the hallway that Granger and the boy were in was completely surrounded by fire, but the fire never reached him. She appeared to be screaming at him, but he couldn't hear a word she was screaming, if he had to guess, she was screaming for help. But before he could move to help her, a booming voice spoke all around him, it was the voice of his father.

"Aww, do you pity the mudblood, Draco?" his father's voice said. "My one and only son, pities the mudblood. Oh Draco, how you have gotten soft without me. How pathetic." He spat the last word out, like the word itself left a bad taste in his mouth.

Draco looked around to see where his father was, but there wasn't anyone else in the room except for himself, Granger and the little boy, trapped in the fire.

"I'm not here son, I'm dead remember? You and your mother betrayed me and put me here." He sounded angry. "You are no son of mine. No son of mine would ever betray me like you did!"

Draco tried to shut the voice from entering his head, but nothing seemed to work, he could still hear it. How it taunted him, how it seemed to make him angry and sad at the same time, how it seemed to be so much like his real father. But he was very aware that this was all a dream, he didn't know how, he just did. And he hated it. He tried to wake up. All around him, his father's voice continued to throw insults that made Draco feel like a small child getting scolded again. All the things the voice was saying was everything his father had said to him once before, and that was what hurt the most.

"STOP IT! STOP IT! STOP IT! STOP IT!" Draco screamed at the voice while covering his ears as he fell to the floor. And all at once, everything seemed to stop, the hateful voice, the flames, Grangers silent screaming, everything. He opened his eyes, he was back in his room, at Hogwarts.

He was safe, at least for now.

When she had left the library, she was exhausted to her bones, but at least she had completed her homework and the prefect schedule for the rest of the term. It had taken her three hours to complete the homework, she had even triple checked her work just to be safe, then another two to deal with the schedule. As she was walking back to her common room, she caught and deducted points from a few students who were out after curfew.

When she got to the dorm, she had greeted Malfoy, but he ignored her and left to his room. She just sighed, she had hoped that things would be different this year, seeing that they've all lost so much to the war. Well, she could hope as much as she wanted, the real effort would have to come from Malfoy, and herself she supposed. Working with him would prove to be a challenge in itself. When she entered her room, she packed her bags ready for classes tomorrow, then got ready for bed.

At first she was in a mansion she did not recognise, not that she had been in many. She walked around for what seemed like a few minutes, but as she was wandering around, she suddenly felt a hand grab onto her wrist. When she turned, she reached for her wand that was usually by her side, but it wasn't there. She looked down to see a young boy with a head of curly blonde hair and brown eyes staring up at her. She wanted to ask the boy what he was doing here alone, but before she could ask, he started leading her down a hallway away from the entrance. As she started down the hallway, heat seared all around her, and she turned to see Malfoy standing and staring right at her. What was he doing in her dream?The fire started to spread all around them, until they were trapped in the hallway with no way out. But while they were surrounded by fire, it never grew closer to them, it was as though the fire wanted to keep them there but not harm them.

"Go get help!" Hermione was screaming to Draco. But all he did was stand there and look horrified. Then she heard the voice of a dead man. Lucius. She heard the taunting that Lucius threw at his son, him calling her the horrible word that was etched into her skin, and the sound of pure torture that only a parent can inflict on their own child. You are no son of mine. That had to hurt, she could only think about what her parents would say to her if she ever found them and managed to return their memories. It was right after that that she woke up.

She was sweaty and her eyes were puffy from crying, she wasn't sure why she was crying . She had never had a nightmare as realistic as the one she just had, she could still feel the heat of the fire against her skin and the place on her wrist where the young boy had held onto her. She rubbed her wrist, a dull pain shot through her wrist, there was actually a bruise around it, around the size of the boys hand. The sight of the bruise sent shivers up her spine, was the dream real? 'It's impossible' she thought, she must've just gotten her wrist tied up in something when she slept, or that was the excuse she gave it since she no longer wanted to think about it.

After waking up, she couldn't go back to sleep, she always had trouble sleeping after she woke up. She decided not to fight it and took a quick shower, put her hair in a simple side braid, then she sat and watched the sun rise while she drank a cup of tea to calm herself down. This morning, the sky was a beautiful teal and purple painting, one she would love to paint when she had the time.

She headed down for breakfast and then headed off to class. Against her better judgement, she kept replaying the dream from last night as she walked to class. Where was she? Who was the little boy? Why was she in a mansion? Why was Malfoy there? Of all the people she had in her life, the last person she expected to dream about was him. As she tried to explain the dream to herself, she didn't realise where she was going and she walked right into Blaise Zabini.

"Woah there Granger, you'd better watch where you're going. A few more times and people are going to start thinking you're doing it on purpose." He said in a flirty tone as he smoothed out his robes. A smirk was playing at his lips.

"Huh? Oh, hello Blaise. What are you talking about?" Hermione responded, her mind was still going over all the questions she had.

"You okay Granger? You seem a bit off today."

"I'm fine, I'm fine. My mind is just a little preoccupied." She tried to wave him off as she headed towards the classroom.

She didn't pay much attention during the class, but she already knew what the professor was teaching, she had read about it during her fifth year. All she could think about was the dream and the bruise around her wrist. Was the bruise actually related to the dream she just had? She was certain that she didn't notice a bruise yesterday, so she must've gotten it sometime at night. It was an incredible coincidence, she didn't believe in coincidences, and with magic in her life, there was a higher chance that it was related to that. If that was the case, and magic was involved, did Draco then have the same dream as she did? He was in her dream after all. She needed to look up whatever she was experiencing when she had the time, and she also needed to talk to Malfoy about it, as impossible as that seemed.


	5. What Happened?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song recs:
> 
> Code Kunst ft. Lee Hi - XI
> 
> Alan Walker ft. Sabrina Carpenter - On My Way
> 
> Elton John - I'm Still Standing

The dream made it hard to think straight, all Hermione could think about was that damn dream. She spent hours after class looking through the library for any information on dreams being connected to reality, or being able to experience things from dreams physically, but all her research had lead to even more questions rather than answers. All the books she read had no information that could explain what had happened to her. Hermione had spent so many hours at the library, she had missed lunch and dinner and it was well after dark now.

Her exhaustion had finally hit her when she made to stand up, her legs felt wobbly and she saw stars for a short moment. When she left the library, it was probably 1 in the morning and everyone was most likely back in their dorms. She decided to hurry back when she remembered the last time she had walked back to the dorm this late, so she held onto her bag and quickened her pace. However, she didn't feel the same horrible feeling she had the last time, but she still hurried back, she didn't want to chance it.

She got to the portrait and relief flooded her, but right before she got the chance to mutter the password, she felt searing pain and then everything went black.

When she came to, she was in the hospital wing, staring up at the worried faces of Madam Pomfrey and Headmistress McGonagall. She tried to sit up, but Madam Pomfrey held her back and advised her to stay down.

"What happened?" Hermione asked groggily, her mind lagging behind slightly.

"How are you feeling Miss Granger?" McGonagall asked her, a worried look on her face.

"My whole body hurts, and my arm feels like it's on fire… wait, what happened to me? Why am I here?" She noticed that her right arm was wrapped up, the same arm that Bellatrix had carved into.

"Mister Malfoy brought you in about an hour ago, it appears to me that you had passed out in front of the dormitory. Madam Pomfrey performed multiple medical physical tests on you, but she could not find out what was wrong, so she called me in." The headmistress explained calmly as she sat down beside her, "I found traces of dark magic, in particular the cruciatus curse, had been used on you."

At that revelation, Hermione sat up in her bed, the sudden movement caused her head to spin and throb even more than it already was. McGonagall had placed a hand on her shoulder to steady Hermione, all she could think about was to not throw up on the Headmistress.

"Do you remember anything that happened before you passed out?" Madam Pomfrey asked tentatively.

"All I remember is walking back from the library, getting to the portrait, then I felt immense pain… like my entire body was on fire, then nothing, I didn't see anyone else when I was walking back." Hermione said slowly, trying to remember anything from an hour ago. "I didn't hear anyone speak, it was so quiet, I would've heard someone's heart beat." She looked at the older witches as they exchanged a worried look.

"This is a very confusing case, the wards didn't catch any intruders and there is no one wandering the halls at this time. I would advise you to rest here tonight and Madam Pomfrey will examine you more tomorrow morning. We shall talk more about this tomorrow, but for now, please rest and try to get as much sleep as possible." McGonagall stood up and gave her a worried smile before she left with Madam Pomfrey to further discuss the matter, they were just out of earshot but Hermione caught a few words that didn't make any sense to her.

After Headmistress McGonagall had left, Madam Pomfrey gave her a vial of dreamless-sleep potion to get her through the night. Little did she know, that was the last peaceful sleep she was going to get in a while.

"What do you think of Granger?" Blaise asked out of the blue.

"Granger?" Draco asked, surprised but he sudden question. He had just been thinking about his dream, wondering why she of all people had been in his dream. He had never really figured out his feelings toward the witch, did he hate her or not? No, he didn't hate her, he didn't think he ever did. He was just confused and angry, he was so angry. If he really thought about his feelings towards the witch, his distaste for her was mainly because of all the things his father had drilled into his head from the moment that he was born, that he was special, that muggleborns are inferior and do not belong in the magical world. And when she had beaten him in every subject, it angered him, not only because he was second to someone who was supposed to be his inferior, but because she was proof that everything he had been taught since he was young was a lie.

"Draco?" Blaise snapped his fingers in front of his face. "What's your answer?"

"I don't know, she's a stuck up know-it-all, I'm pretty sure you would know what she's like. It's not like I spend my free time thinking about her."

"Liar. You used to torment her mercilessly. You would've had to think about her to torment her." Blaise recounted. "And to be fair, she's only a know-it-all because she does know everything." Blaise himself had never taken part in any of the pranks or bullying that Draco had done, but he hadn't said anything to stop it either. Draco knew Blaise always felt guilty about it, why though, Draco never understood his friend.

"Oh shove off. Why are we talking about her anyway?" Draco just scowled.

"Well, whatever it is, I do hope you get along with her. She's a great friend, loyal to the bone and has enough brains to beat you in every test we've ever taken." Blaise teased him.

"Please just shut up about it will ya?" He just rolled his eyes and tried to change the subject. "We better hurry up or we're going to be late for Ancient Runes." They picked up the pace and made it to class just on time.

By the time he had finished all his homework for the day and whatever extra reading they were assigned, it was almost eleven. Draco yawned almost the entire way back to his dormitory, and even though he usually slept later than this, he couldn't help but feel absolutely wrecked from all the reading he had done. However, he thought he could hold off sleeping for a little while more, and took out a book for some light reading. As he started to read, the words were lifting off the page, and within ten minutes, he was asleep on the couch.

The dream started off the same, so far it always started off with him wandering around the unknown mansion. He walked around, the little boy was no where in sight, and neither was Hermione. He opened a door to the right of the entrance hall, it opened up to a massive ball room, bigger than the one he had back in the Manor. The ballroom was empty, but the enormous room was so elegantly decorated, it seemed like it came straight out of a fairy tale. There were five chandeliers hanging from the ornately painted ceiling, it looked very Sistine chapel-esque, the floor was black marble and the walls were a light grey colour, the main focus was obviously the ceiling.

While he was busy admiring the ceiling, he completely glossed over the three figures that had appeared and were at the other side of the room. The first thing that alerted him to the others in the room was a small sob, a familiar sob. He turned and saw a scene straight from his memories, his deranged aunt was hovering over Granger, a mad look in her eyes. Hermione's soft sobs and pleas was all he could hear, even as his aunt's mouth moved, asking silent questions. The third figure stood a little ways away from the women, it was him, staring at the ground because he couldn't look at her. He didn't need to hear what his aunt was saying to know that it scared the life out of her, then his aunt pointed her wand at Granger, then her screaming was all he could hear. Screaming, crying, and pleading.

"Please, I don't know where we got it from. I swear!" Hermione pleaded in between screams. "It just appeared in the woods. We didn't steal anything."

Another round. Then another. And another. When his aunt had finally stopped with the torture, she leaned down over the still crying Granger and proceeded to carve the word he swore he would never speak again into her arm. The whole time, he stood there watching, it was like his legs were made of lead, they just wouldn't move no matter how hard he tried.

A high pitched scream woke him up from his nightmare. He sprang up from the couch, but noticed that he was still alone in the dorm, all the doors were open, Granger was nowhere in sight. He started to wonder if he had imagined the scream, had it come from his nightmare? It seemed so real though. He cleared his things from the common area and shoved everything into his bag, he still couldn't shove the nagging feeling that something was wrong.

Walking towards the portrait hole, he decided to take a peep outside, just to make sure that there wasn't anyone outside his dorm getting murdered. He opened the portrait and stepped out, but his foot landed on something fleshy and uneven, which made him fall over.

"What the fuc…" he rubbed his hand, then looked at what he had tripped over, "Granger?" He rushed to her side and started to shake her. "Wake up Granger, wake up!" He was yelling now, he looked around to see if there was anyone there that could help him, they were alone in the hallway. There was nothing else he could do but bring her to the hospital wing, so he placed her on his back and started running.

"Madam Pomfrey!" He yelled as soon as he passed the doors to the infirmary, "Madam Pomfrey!"

"What is it boy?" Madam Pomfrey emerged from the office. "Oh my! What happened?" She guided him towards a bed and he placed her down.

"I don't know. I went out of our dorm to check something, then I tripped over her. When I tried waking her up, she was unresponsive. I didn't see anyone else outside, then I brought her here straightaway." Draco explained.

"Well it's good that you got her here immediately, I'm just going to run some tests, it's best if you get some rest now." She started casting spells to check Grangers physical health and other things Draco didn't completely understand.

"Do you know if she's alright" Draco asked.

"I'll know more after I run some tests." She replied, not looking at Draco. "I do suggest you go get some rest, it's very late, and you have classes tomorrow."

With that, Draco nodded and made his way out of the room. He looked back at Granger once more, there was something about her face that made him feel guilty all over again. He didn't know why he was so worried, she didn't mean anything more to him than any other muggle, and he had been ignoring and avoiding her like his life depended on it ever since he got to Hogwarts. All he knew was that he was worried, worried for her.


	6. I'm With You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song recs:
> 
> GION - Young Love
> 
> Finneas - Let's Fall In Love For The Night
> 
> Etham - I Wish It Was Me (Stripped ver)

The next morning, she awoke to the faces of Harry, Ron, and Ginny staring down at her.

"I told you not to wake her up." Ginny hit her brother on the arm.

"Ow! I didn't! You would've seen if I woke her up." Ron protested, rubbing the place his sister had hit him. Hermione smiled at the bickering siblings, it felt like the old days when their souls were still unmarred from the horrors of war.

"How are you feeling 'Mione?" Harry asked and helped her sit up in the bed.

"I'm feeling much better now. I've still got a slight headache, and my body is a little sore, but nothing horrible, it's just like I've been running a little too much. How did you know I was here?"

"McGonagall told us this morning after breakfast. Do you know what happened last night? Why were you passed out in front of your dorm?" Two excellent questions from Ron, questions she did not have answers to.

"I honestly don't know. I was coming back late from the library, then the next thing I know, I feel like my insides were melting and wanting to spill out of every pore on my body." At this, Harry and Ron looked at each other. "McGonagall told me that there was traces of the cruciatus curse last night, but I know there wasn't anyone else near me, I would've heard them saying the spell. "

"We're going to find out who did this, I'm gonna make sure of it." Ron had a scary look in his eye, it was almost feral. Harry nodded at Ron's words, they were going to find who did this, even if it was the last thing they did.

Ginny sat down beside her, "how are you holding up? Other than physically of course." She took hold of Hermione's hand and gave it a slow rub. Looking up at the witch now, you would think she was the older one, she had a worried expression on her face, and she was so gentle with her.

"Honestly, I'm a little scared." She confessed. "Hogwarts has always been my second home, my safe space. Now, I don't know where I can feel safe if not here." Ginny just hugged her, it wasn't a tight hug, but it was firm enough to let Hermione know that she would be there if she needed her.

"Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, and Miss Weasley, as pleased as I am to see you, I would appreciate it if you gave Miss Granger here some more time to rest." Madam Pomfrey said as she made her way towards them from the doors.

"I'm fine Madam Pomfrey, I would like to go to class if you'd permit me."

"Absolutely not, not for today at least. I want to conduct more tests and make sure all that foul magic is out of your system before I let you go." The mediwitch was by her bed now, handing her a potion to drink. "Now, the rest of you, off to class. You can visit her in the afternoon." The three of them hugged her once more before they left, promising her that everything will be alright. Hermione really wanted to believe them.

With nothing else to do, all occupied her mind was the events from last night, even if her body was incapable of moving, it didn't mean her mind had to stay still too. Replaying all the events from last night, she recounted her steps. She walked back from the library late last night, she didn't feel anyone following her or watching her in any way, it was a completely normal night up until she passed out. Then she suddenly felt pain all over, then… then nothing. She was certain there was no one else in the hallway, it was late enough that the other students would've been in bed by then, and she also didn't hear or see anyone else. But how did she still get hit with the cruciatus curse?

A couple hours went by before Madam Pomfrey gave her a bowl of stew, lunch was served. Like most hospitals, the food wasn't great, but it was healing, and healing food didn't usually taste the best. But still, Hermione ate every last bite and thanked the matron.

"Madam Pomfrey, is it true that Draco Malfoy brought me in last night?" With so much information being thrown at her last night, she didn't have a chance to properly digest that small nugget of information.

"Yes dear. I was shocked too when he ran in here in the middle of the night, yelling Bloody Mary with you unconscious on his back. The poor boy was so out of breath and worried out of his mind, I thought he was going to pass out along with you."

"He was worried?" That shocked Hermione. She knew he had changed, he was no longer the same prat that had called her slurs or thrown wadded up paper into her hair, thinking back, she noted that he hadn't called her that horrible term since they met on the train. But he also hadn't shown any signs he had noticed her existence other than Prefect duties, most days he just ignored her and got on with his day. He was one confusing specimen.

"Very worried. He wouldn't leave your side the entire time I was running tests on you. He only left because I told him to, I had a feeling if I didn't tell him to go back, he would've stayed all night."

"Huh, that's interesting." She wanted to talk to Draco after this, maybe he saw something she didn't, or maybe he had another explanation for all of this.

A few hours later, just before dinner was to be served, Madam Pomfrey let her go, making her promise to not do any strenuous activity or to overtax herself. She hugged the matron once more and left. She needed to talk to Draco, it was the only way to put her mind at ease, no matter how awkward things were going to get. If anything, she wanted to thank him, if not for him, she would have only been found the next morning.

He wondered if she was alright, that was all that was running through his head on his way back from the hospital wing. Why was she passed out right in front of their dorm? Was someone responsible for her passing out? There was no way he would've let someone slip pass him like that, although, he was preoccupied with an unconscious Granger, so he shouldn't be too hard on himself. He also wondered why he was as worried as he was, it was an unusual thing for Draco to be this worried for someone who wasn't family or a close friend. It was also Granger that he was worried for, now he was beginning to worry about his own sanity.

On his way back, he had to come to terms with the fact that there was absolutely nothing he could do for her right now, all he could hope for was that Madam Pomfrey's skills were good enough to treat her. He sighed and flopped onto the couch, he didn't feel like making it all the way to his room, even if it was only a few meters away. He was officially done with the day, and as soon as he closed his eyes, the darkness welcomed him.

Tonight, his dream was different, he didn't have a physical body, it was more like watching events happen from a third person point of view, like a fly on the wall. He saw Hermione laying in the middle of what looked like the living room of the same mansion he had been dreaming about, only this time it was dusty, dirty and broken. The mansion now looked so old and unstable; like it would collapse if a breeze were to blow in its direction. He watched her stand up and dust herself off, she looked fine despite her being unconscious in the middle of this mansion a few seconds ago. As she looked around, something caught her eye, there was a figure at the top of the staircase staring right at her.

"Hello? Can you please tell me where I am?" Hermione called out to the person at the top of the stairs. She didn't get a response, the figure just turned and walked away. "Hey!" she called after the figure. She ran up the stairs, Draco was following Hermione at a distance, wherever she moved, he moved as well. When Hermione had reached the top of the stair, the child was gone.

Instead, there was a painting that caught her attention. It was innocent enough, a portrait of a young girl, with long pale blonde hair and big brown eyes. There was a small metal plaque at the bottom of the frame, it read Lyra Aster Malfoy-Granger, age 5'... wait a minute, Malfoy-Granger?

'What the…' was all Draco could think as soon as he read that.

"Mommy?" A soft voice called from the right hallway, Draco's consciousness turned with Hermione's head.

"Hello? Is anyone here?" she called out. He expected no response, but got one.

"Mommy, are you there? Save me mommy, I'm scared." The same voice said. It sounded so innocent and scared, it broke Draco's heart. Whatever this little girl was scared of, he wanted nothing more than to protect her and let her know everything was going to be okay. He never knew he had any paternal instincts in him, but he guessed they were always there.

"Where are you?" Hermione called out. "I can't see you. You need to tell me where you are."

"I'm right here mommy. Can't you see me?" She said in such a sad tone, it almost broke his heart.

Hermione turned and there was still no one in sight. Draco grew more and more confused as the dream progressed.

"I'm here mommy." The voice sounded like it was right behind him, but there was still no one in sight. "I'm with you right now." That sent shivers up Draco's spine, something about those words sounded wrong. And those were the words that stuck with Draco when he woke up, "I'm with you right now."


	7. Coincidence? I Think Not

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song recs:
> 
> Lewis Capaldi - Before You Go
> 
> Jeremy Zucker - All The Kids are Depressed

'Just thank him, that's all you have to do. It's just a thank you, people like being appreciated, don't they? He won't sneer at you if you just said a quick 'thank you.'... He won't right?' Hermione kept trying to calm herself in her head, reasoning that he wouldn't bite her head off for thanking him for that night, but she was still nervous nonetheless. She hadn't seen him when she got back to the dorm last night after dinner, it was dark and she just wanted to get to bed. Harry, Ron and Ginny had suggested that she spend the night at the Gryffindor dorms, but she had refused, she had her own bed and she was going to sleep in it.

It was now 7 in the morning of the following day, and she was waiting in their common room for him to emerge from his room. She was drinking her tea, in hopes it would calm her nerves down, while basically staring a hole through his door and trying to gage when his door would open. She assumed he was still in his room since the door was still closed and it was rather early in the morning.

30 minutes had passed and he still hadn't exited his room, breakfast was going to end soon. She checked the clock that hung above the fireplace in the common area once more before she left, she would have to postpone it.

The Great Hall was almost full as usual, even if it was quite early on a weekend. The first weekend back at Hogwarts was always the best day of the term, everyone got to relax and hang out with their friends, classes weren't so intense yet and the homework hadn't piled up above their heads. She spent the day with Harry and Ron, Ginny dropped by a couple times, in the Gryffindor common room, just talking and being in each other's company. Harry and Ron were in the middle of a rather heated game of chess when Ginny dropped by for the third time.

"They're concentrating." Hermione said to the redhead as she stared at her boyfriend. She and Harry had officially gotten together the beginning of summer after the war, it was about time honestly. Ginny had liked Harry for what seemed like forever, and Harry was oblivious to his feelings for her for the longest time. When Ginny finally asked Harry what they were, Harry was a little confused, he assumed that he had already clarified that they were dating after they kissed. Men.

"I can see that. It's about the only time they actually use their brains." Ginny quipped, the boys didn't even look up from their game.

"Where were you just now?" Hermione asked.

"Just walking about with Luna, haven't had much time to spend with her recently." She sat down next to Harry, throwing her legs over his. The action once again did not faze the boys. The girls carried on with their conversation while the boys played their chess. It had gotten late and was almost time for dinner.

"Come on, I'm starving." Ron said as he ushered the rest out of the portrait hole.

"Why am I not surprised? You're always hungry." Harry jabbed his friend in the ribs. They joked and laughed all the way to the Great Hall, Hermione momentarily forgot her earlier nerves.

Hermione sat at the table nearest to the rest of her friends that had a Gryffindor seat empty, she slid into the seat while still talking to Harry about the Transfiguration homework they got in class that week. When she turned around to face the others at the table, her stomach did a weird flip.

"Malfoy!" She hadn't intended it to come out as a squeak, but that was how it sounded like.

"Granger." He replied but didn't look at her. There was an awkward pause as no other student had joined their table, Malfoy had resorted to staring at his nails while Hermione twirled her hair around her finger.

"I just wanted to thank you… for saving my life." Hermione finally got it out of her.

"I didn't save your life. But uh, no problem?" He didn't sound sure of what was happening, this was the first civil conversation they had in a while after all.

"I heard you carried me all the way to the Hospital Wing, that must've been hard." She tried to keep the conversation going.

"It wasn't, you're not very heavy." His replies were short and to the point, she didn't know what else to talk about so they eventually sat in silence once more. It was five minutes later when the other two seats were filled and they finally ate. As Hermione ate, she noticed that Malfoy was scarfing down his roast chicken, barely coming up for air, and he certainly did not speak to anyone else at the table.

It can be said that that was one of the most awkward dinners she has ever had.

She was on duty that night, she and Daniel Haggerty met up after dinner and patrolled around the grounds, it was nice talking to someone she wasn't very familiar with. He was a fifth year, Hufflepuff and wanted to do something with potions when he graduated.

"Do you know what you want to specialise in yet?" Hermione asked as they walked up the third floor stairs.

"I'm thinking of making wolfsbane more accessible, it's horribly difficult to make and even harder to get just right." Hermione stared at the boy. Wolfbane was one of the hardest potions she had ever seen, she never made it before, but she knew theoretically it would take weeks to brew a batch of it.

"Wolfbane? That's extremely hard and time consuming. What made you want to do it?"

"I know someone who was bitten when I was ten, and he hasn't been the same since. Every time the full moon comes along, he becomes more distant and snappy. The week leading up to it, he becomes a shell of himself, and the few days after, he's just so tired and worn out. I can't bear the thought of how much he must be suffering." She felt genuine sadness for the boy, "I just want to make it better for him, and I know wolfsbane can help with that. I've read up on all the books I could find in the library that even mentioned it. I think I've got a pretty good chance of perfecting it. And once I've perfected it, it'll be easy to distribute to anyone who needs it."

Hermione felt proud of this boy she had just met. He was so young and yet he had more empathy and heart than most adults, he seemed to genuinely want to help others that were suffering just to ease their pain. They talked about their interests in potions and whatever she knew about wolfsbane from talking with Remus when he was still around. Their shift went by rather quickly, as quickly as two hours could pass by that is. They bid each other good night and went their separate ways.

When Hermione got back to the dorm, Malfoy's door was closed.

His nightmares had gotten progressively worse as the days went by, they started to get creepier and creepier as well.

Tonight, he was in, what looked to him like the same mansion in a more decayed state. He had woken up on a bed in one of the rooms, the room was big and had a thick layer of dust on everything, including him. He brushed the dust off his clothing and hair, then proceeded to look around the house. It looked oddly familiar to him, like he had been here before, but as before,just as a thought was forming, it would slip past his reach. Suddenly, there was crying, a little girls crying this time. He walked towards the crying, knowing it was a bad idea, but continued to walk anyway, this is how people died in all those horror movies Blaise kept forcing him to watch.

"Is anyone here?" he asked to no one in particular. The crying stopped. He heard quick footsteps and laughter behind him. He spun on his heels, but saw no one. 'This place is so haunted, and not the good kind. I'm getting out of here.' He thought to himself as he ran for the front door. But before he could reach it, at the foot of the steps, a little girl, in a white gown was standing there. She had pale blonde hair and large eyes, in the darkness, her eyes looked completely black.

"Daddy! You're home." She said as she ran up the stairs with a huge smile on her face and hugged him.

Not knowing what else to do, Draco slowly hugged her back. 'Why is this kid hugging me?' he thought to himself. 'This is one weird nightmare. Also, did she call me daddy?'

"Hey, where is your mommy and daddy?" he kneeled down to face the young girl, still a bit creeped out by her eyes.

"Oh daddy, you're silly. You're my daddy of course. But I don't know where mommy went. She went away and never came back." the girl pouted, she looked like she was on the verge of tears. Just as she let go of him, a hooded figure appeared directly behind the little girl, seemingly out of nowhere and grabbed her. She was screaming for help and flailing her arms wildly. Draco tried to save the little girl, but the figure had hit him hard behind the head which caused him to lose his balance and fall down the stairs. The hooded figure then disappeared in a mist of black smoke, along with the girl.

"What the fuck?" He grabbed the back of his head as his vision darkened.

The headache that greeted him the next morning was so intense it almost made him pass out. He grabbed his head and winced at the pain, he never really got headaches or migraines, his mother used to get them all the time, he wondered if migraines and headaches could be hereditary. Sitting up made the room spin and it took him a few seconds to get readjusted, focusing on trying not to throw up. Looking down at his pillow, he saw darker marks on his dark green pillow cases. 'I probably sweated during the night,' he thought, then went over to the bathroom to take a shower.

Almost as soon as the water had hit his head, the water around his feet turned a pink shade.

"What…?" He looked at the water that started becoming darker and darker. He rushed out of the shower and ran straight to the mirror. Blood on the back of his head, the same spot where the hooded figure in his dream had hit him. 'It's not possible,' he thought. Dreams were just dreams. There was no way they could actually hurt you.

Or could they?

The dream where Granger had been tortured by Bellatrix, he had found her passed out right outside their dorm right after. He hadn't thought much about it until right then, it had been too close in time to just be a coincidence, it was honestly creepy when he thought more about it.

He knew there was only one thing he could really do, talk to someone about his suspicions. He knew that someone would most likely be Granger, since she is the only other person in his dreams that he recognised.

He and Granger were on weird terms to say the least. When she had thanked him for saving her life yesterday, it was nothing short of awkward, he still cringed at the memory. But he was going to have to find a way to talk to her about it, without insulting or scaring her off. They hadn't had a full conversation other than prefect duties, and even then it was straight to the point and never lasted more than five minutes.

This was going to be hard.


	8. You've Changed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song recs:
> 
> Hwasa - LMM
> 
> Anne Marie ft. Doja Cat - To Be Young
> 
> Bazzi - I Don't Think I'm Okay

He paced around his room before leaving the next day. He didn't know how he would even start an actual conversation with her, let alone begin to approach the theory he had come up with, or just talk about the fact that he had been seeing her in his dreams for the past few nights. He paused his pacing and began to question everything, 'what if it really is just a coincidence, maybe the dreams were just creepy nightmares? It's only been a few days since we've been back, maybe this will go away.'

He decided to sleep on it for a couple more days, or until something undeniable comes his way.

He got ready to head to the Ministry for his weekly check in. He focused on tying his tie, it gave him something else to focus on, other than his constant thoughts and theories of the dreams and why he had been seeing Granger in them. He gave himself a once over in the closet door before he walked out and headed to the headmistress office.

Only the headmistress and the other professors knew about his weekly check-ins with the Ministry, it was essential they knew after all. He knocked on the door when he reached the office.

"Come in." He heard the headmistress call.

"Good morning headmaster." He greeted her. It was rather weird to be calling her 'headmaster' when he technically should've called her 'headmistress,' but she didn't seem to mind, she just nodded in reply.

"I'm glad you're on time Mr. Malfoy, the Ministry does not take too kindly to latecomers." She said as she ushered him towards the fireplace behind the desk. "Now I assume you know what to do now. I will be notified when you are done with your appointment and I will be expecting you back shortly after."

Draco knew all this already, it was communicated to him the day before he left for Hogwarts, the same day he got his wand back. He also knew of the consequences should he not comply with the rules the Ministry had set. Failure to show up at a weekly check in, unless a reasonable excuse is given (with proof and/or a credible witness), would result in an additional two year probation per week missed, failure to return immediately to Hogwarts would result in immediate incarceration and will only be excused if accompanied by an Auror or by McGonagall herself.

He stepped into the fireplace and grabbed a handful of floo powder, he nodded to the headmistress and flooed to the department he was expected in.

The first check in was rather simple, they first checked his wand for all the spells he had casted since he got his wand back. Once that was cleared, they asked him a few questions about his schedule at Hogwarts and what he had been doing for the past week, when they were satisfied with his answers, they stamped a card he had to bring back every week to get the weekly stamp. He was done and back at Hogwarts within an hour.

He had class in the afternoon, so he had a few hours to spare before he had to do anything. On the way back to the dorm, he heard whispering, it seemed to be coming from just around the corner. When he turned the corner, he saw Daphne and Pansy arguing in whispers, they were soft enough that he couldn't make out what they were saying. Not knowing if he should interrupt them or not, he didn't move from his spot, which looking back wasn't the most covert thing he could've done.

"... how could you?" He heard the tail end of one of Daphne's sentences.

"... your business. It's my life…" was all he got from Pansy's reply. He tried moving slowly in hopes they wouldn't notice him and he could escape this without being noticed. But obviously that wouldn't work.

"Draco?" He heard Pansy say his name.

He scratched his neck, sighed, then turned around and gave the two girls a small wave. "Morning," he greeted, deciding to go with his easy going and nonchalant mask to hide his discomfort. "What secrets are we discussing here?"

"Nothing," Pansy said a little too quickly. "Just catching up, we haven't seen each other in a while." He knew a Pansy lie when he saw one, and this was definitely one of them. Pansy was a rather good actress, but having been around her for most of his life, he learned to read the signs. There was something there, but he didn't know what, he would have to ask around about any tension between the two girls, maybe Blaise would know, but for now he would let it go.

"Slightly disappointing, I thought you knew all the little secrets around the castle Panse," Draco teased. "Oh well, maybe next time." Then he walked away, thankful that he knew how to cut conversations quickly.

Lunch had been a pain, although not as painful as some other days. He sat at a table with Lovegood, Bones and whichever Patil twin was in Gryffindor. They mostly ignored him, as usual, but that didn't mean that he ignored them too, or at least what they were talking about.

Draco would never admit it, but he always loved drama, as long as it didn't involve him directly. He spent most of his life playing a pompous git so well, that most people would never think that he gave two rats arse about whatever they were talking about, which meant that they were less conscious of him whenever they shittalked someone. This meant they usually didn't lower their voices or censor out any names, this fed his need to know everything, even if it was useless information.

Today, Bones and Patil were talking about some lovers quarrel that Patil had overheard in the Gryffindor common room, for the most part, Lovegood didn't really chip in. Instead, she kept staring at him.

It was unnerving.

Her big, pale eyes seemed to stare right into his soul, and she had an inquisitive look on her face, like she was reading through all his secrets and desires. He did not like that one bit, it was usually him that made other people feel uncomfortable, intentionally or not.

"What?" He said to her without looking up from his cereal. The other two girls didn't stop their chatter, they must not have heard him.

"You've changed." It wasn't a question, it was a statement.

"And?"

"Nothing." She stopped staring at him and turned towards the other girls, suddenly not interested in him anymore. Infuriating.

Shoving the last of his cereal into his mouth, he saw Theo at the corner of his eye and got up to meet the boy.

"Theo." Draco nodded his head towards his friend.

"Draco." The brown haired boy returned the gesture.

Simple greetings, nothing too showy. "How was your first check in?" Of course Blaise and Theo knew about his arrangement with the Ministry, he had ranted to them for no less than two hours when he first saw them.

"Nothing special. They just checked my wand and asked me a few questions." He shrugged. It really was so easy.

"My dad sent me a letter this morning." Theo said so quietly, Draco almost missed it. He cringed at the thought.

Theo's father hadn't been the kindest father, in fact he was rather cruel, and this was coming from Draco. Sure Lucius had been cold and borderline abusive at times, but most of the time, his father was a good father, doting, caring, and proud of his son. Theo's father had been the opposite, often cruel, uncaring, and unforgiving, he was only nice when there were other people around.

"You want to talk about it?" Draco offered. Theo just shook his head. "Not now then." Theo nodded at that.

They understood each other. Sometimes you needed some time to yourself to process stuff before you opened up to someone else, if you even wanted to talk about it that was. Within their group, they had an understanding, to always be there and honest, but if you didn't want to talk about it, that was your choice. And decisions were always respected.

They continued towards his Muggle studies classroom in comfortable silence. While this was his most dreaded subject, knowing that he wouldn't be suffering through it alone made it slightly more bearable. They had barely made it in class before the professor arrived himself.

"Good morning class," a red headed man at the front of the class said, he could only deduce that he was the professor, and probably a Weasleys. "Now, who can tell me what the function of a rubber duck is?"

Draco rolled his eyes and slumped his head onto his desk, hoping with all his might for time to move faster.

He was just thankful that he got a seat at the back of the class.

Things were back to normal for Hermione, all that occupied her mind was her studies while her friends occupied her free time. She had spent even more time with Harry and Ron, if that was possible, Ginny and Luna also seemed to seek her out more often as well. She never seemed to have any time alone in the few days since she was released from the hospital wing. She didn't know if she liked it, or found it slightly suffocating. The only time she was alone was when she was back in her dorm, and even then she wasn't completely alone, Malfoy was there.

The bandage around her right forearm was the only physical indicator left from that night. She had to get it changed daily, the bleeding hadn't fully stopped yet. It was like when Bellatrix had first slashed it into her arm, the wound didn't stop bleeding for a week, and it never fully healed. The wound stretched the entirety of her forearm, from just below her wrist to her elbow, the slur carved into the flesh so crudely, it was as though a five year old was given a knife and was told to have fun on her arm.

Bellatrix wanted to brand her, and brand her she did. She no longer wore shirts that didn't have long sleeves, even in the summer, no matter how hot it got, she always wore something that could cover it up. It wasn't that she was embarrassed of the wound, she had survived a war goddamnit, she just was not comfortable with all the stares, and she hated the look of pity whenever someone saw it.

She had made the conscious choice to skip breakfast in the Great Hall today and opted for some time to herself, she had heard Malfoy leave a few moments earlier. She had some groceries she bought just in case, a loaf of bread, jam, milk and a few other simple things. She had spent most of her morning on the couch reading, finally some alone time.

When she finally got ready for her one of two classes for the day, it was well past lunch and nearing two in the afternoon, she was on the way to class within ten minutes.

Advanced potions was a hard class to get into, even if it wasn't Professor Snape who was teaching it. Professor Slughorn had incredibly high standards for this class, unless you were one of his favourites, which meant that this class was for those who were serious about it. As usual, she picked a seat at the front of the classroom, on the side that was closer to the ingredients cabinets.

"We missed you at breakfast and lunch today 'Mione, are you okay?" Ron said as he took a seat on the table behind her.

"I'm fine, just felt like staying in was all. I had some food in my dorm anyway." She smiled at the boy. Harry arrived a few minutes later, asking the same question, she gave the same answer.

"Good morning class." Professor Slughorn greeted the class happily as he walked in from the back room. "Oh, please don't put your things down just yet, I've come up with a seating arrangement for this class."

The entire class groaned, almost all classes she had with the Slytherin had arranged seating. She got out of her seat and proceeded to follow the rest of the Gryffindors to the right side of the room, while the Slytherins stuck to the left side.

"Okay, I'll announce your names and where you will be seating for the term, this person will be your partner for all potion assignments." He announced. "Mr. Potter and Ms. Heatherly, right here if you will." He pointed to the seat at the front of the class to the left side, where Hermione was previously sitting at, Harry grumbled something and made his way to the table.

This carried on for a while until most students were partnered up.

"Mr. Longbottom and Ms. Parkinson, please make your way here." He pointed to a table in the middle of the room. "Ms. Granger and Mr. Malfoy, you will be sitting up front and center."

Of course she would be partnered up with Malfoy, they were supposed to show inter house unity after all. She didn't make a fuss and made her way to the table, Harry was at the table to her left with a dark haired Slytherin girl, and to her right was Ron and Nott.

"Perfect! Now that we're all settled, we shall begin with today's assignment. It's just a refresher potion, it shouldn't take too long to make." The professor started rambling about the potion that they were to make today, a simple healing potion, meant for scrapes and bumps. "You will have the remainder of the class to brew it, so please get started." And with that, the class got up to get their cauldrons and ingredients.

"I'll get the ingredients, can you get the cauldron?" She asked Malfoy, while they weren't exactly friendly, she could try for civil. He didn't say anything, just nodded and got up and walked towards the shelf that had the cauldrons. She went to collect the ingredients that she had memorised from all her time running around hunting Horcruxes, it was a useful potion to have on hand.

When she returned to the table, Malfoy had gotten everything that they needed to work with on the table, similar to how she would've done it herself. She set the ingredients down onto the table and began to prepare half the ingredients for the potion, Malfoy did the other half, without being asked to. They worked in silent synchronisation for the rest of the class, they knew exactly what goes in when and how it should be done. It was quite easy to work with him, it was definitely much easier than working with Ron.

Time flew by, and before she knew it, they were the first in class to brew a perfect potion, all without talking to one another.


	9. You Know Greek?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song recs:
> 
> X Ambassadors - Unsteady
> 
> Judy Garland - Somewhere Over The Rainbow
> 
> The Cab - Angel With A Shotgun

His and Granger's synergy in potions had come as a shock to Draco to say the least, never has he ever had a partner that he worked with so well. To be fair, for most of his academic career, he had partnered with the likes of Crabbe and Goyle, not the smartest people out there. He always knew she was smart, but there was just something else about the way they didn't need to talk for them to work that stuck with him, even days after that potions class.

"Draco?" Blaise was waving his hand in front of his face.

"What?" He grumbled, choosing to focus on the homework in front of him.

"What's got you so distracted lately?" Blaise cocked an eyebrow up.

"Nothing." He lied, not wanting to get into the details right this second.

"Oh, there's definitely something if you're lying to me like that." Damn Blaise always knew when he was hiding something, especially when he was lying.

"Who's hiding something?" Theo asked as he plopped down on the seat across from Draco.

"Drakey-poo here is hiding something from us." Blaise informed his friend with a typical Slytherin smirk, Draco just rolled his eyes, he hated that nickname.

"Ooh, seems like a secret, a big fat secret." Theo started getting into it, how he wished the floor could eat him up right then, floors have been known to eat people up before, but for some reason, the floor wasn't cooperating with him today.

"It's seriously nothing," trying his best at nonchalance, but they knew better.

"Fine, we'll let it go today. But sooner or later, we are going to get it out of you." Blaise said, taking 'pity' on him. "Anything new happen today?"

"I wanna chuck myself off the Astronomy Tower, but other than that, all's good." Theo said as he brought out his Muggle Studies textbook, they had all gotten homework for that class.

Draco groaned when he remembered he hadn't started on the homework, and it was due in class that day. He scrambled getting his parchment out and started writing, the three boys exchanging ideas to get through an essay of explaining the basic etiquette of telephone call greetings. While tedious and downright boring, Draco was slightly glad to have something else to focus on other than the nightmares.

They had just finished the essay in the nick of time, with minutes left to spare, they raced to the classroom and grabbed whatever seats they could. As soon as Draco sat down, class had started, and his mind almost immediately wandered off to a world of its own.

As he was leaving the classroom, he debated asking Blaise what was the best approach for him to have a civil conversation with Granger, he knew he needed help there.

"Drake, seriously mate, what's on your mind? You look like you're going to give birth to an elephant." Blaise nudged his arm.

"An elephant?" Draco asked, raising an eyebrow at the taller boy.

"First thing that came to my head." He shrugged. "Stop trying to change the subject."

Draco sighed, "I'm just trying to devise a plan on how to have a conversation with Granger, haven't got any pointers have ya?"

"Wanting to converse with Hermione eh?" Blaise waggled his eyebrows at him.

"This is exactly why I didn't want to tell you and Theo anything." He sighed, he could only be thankful that Theo had another class right after, so he wasn't here.

"Fine fine, I'll stop pushing. You don't need an elaborate plan to talk to her, she's actually quite chill." Blaise reassured him. "Just got to find something in common to start of with, then it'll just flow."

"You're forgetting something." Draco noted.

"What?"

"I'm Draco Malfoy."

"And I'm Blaise Zabini."

"Shut up." He shoved the other boy lightly. "You and her didn't have bad blood before, I'm basically the boogeyman in her nightmares."

"That's true, but I wasn't kind to her either. And I don't think she hates you as much as you think she does." Blaise pointed out. "She's very forgiving, it's the Gryffindor in her. I would recommended apologising to her first though, you were quite the git to her."

"Well, I'm going to have to think of something won't I?"

"Why do you want to talk to her now? Not that I am discouraging it or anything, just that the past week has been going relatively well, what with you basically ignoring her." They stopped in front of the Heads dorm, Draco said the password and entered, Blaise was the first guest he brought over.

"I've just got something to talk to her about." He tried to keep it as vague as possible, he didn't want to tell them just yet.

"This is a nice place you guys got here." Blaise admired before jumping onto the green couch. He seemed to forget about the conversation they were just having as his eyes scanned the room, he was easy to distract. They passed the time by playing Exploding Snap and finishing up whatever homework they had before they started to make their way to the Great Hall for dinner.

He didn't know when it had started, but he had definitely noticed her more than he cared to admit.

She left at roughly the same time everyday, almost exactly at half past six in the morning, he would hear her leave her room, fix a cup of tea, then leave the dorm at seven. While he had been avoiding her ever since they were back, he had noticed a few of her habits, they did live in relatively close quarters to one another, so it was hard not to notice. Some other habits he had noticed was that she always took her tea with a teaspoon of sugar, read and completed any homework they had the day they got it, always returned back to the dorm rather late, and she tied her hair in plaits almost daily.

After a particularly long day, he returned to the dorm hoping to catch a quick nap before dinner. When he entered the dorm, he found Granger on the red couch, napping. She had obviously been reading just before she fell asleep as a book lay open on her chest, moving with her breathing. His curiosity got the better of him, taking a peek to find out what she had been reading, he noticed that it was a book on Greek mythology, in… Greek? He could only guess that it was a book on Greek mythology judging from the statues of the various Greek gods on the cover, but other than that, he had no clue what was written.

A yawn stole his attention and brought back his need to take a nap.

He settled on the green couch opposite from Granger, and within minutes he was snoring.

Seeing the face of Draco Malfoy when she woke up from her nap was unsettling to say the least, as she had no memory of falling asleep, least of all with Malfoy in the room. Stretching as she sat up, she craned her neck to catch a glance at the clock above the fireplace. Merlin's pants, they were missing dinner time! She sprang up off the couch and grabbed her robes, walked around the coffee table, bent down and nudged Malfoy softly in hopes to wake him somewhat gently.

"Malfoy, it's dinner time." That was all she needed to say before grey eyes were staring back at hers and he had sat up so quickly, all the blood rushed to his head and he looked slightly nauseous. Within seconds, he was on his feet and making his way out the portrait hole.

Boys and their stomachs.

As Hermione followed Malfoy out, she noticed he had somewhat slowed his earlier pace, so she was only slightly behind him.

"You know Greek?" It was technically a question, but his delivery made it sound more like a statement.

"What?"

"Greek. You were reading a book in Greek."

"Oh, yes I was," she was still a bit confused that he was actually speaking to her, he had not spoken more than ten words to her since the prefects meeting last week. "It's about Greek mythology."

"How do you know it?"

"My mother is of Greek descent, so she spoke it at home and made me learn it." Remembering all those weekends when her mother would sit her down at the dining table and teach her native language to Hermione almost made her cry. She missed them both so much. "My father is French, so I speak that too."

"Not bad Granger."

"What about you then?" She didn't know why, but she wanted to keep the conversation going, it was their first actual conversation that didn't have any slurs or curses thrown around. "What other languages do you speak?"

"French, Italian and Korean."

"Korean?"

"Blaise's mom is Korean, she taught it to me whenever I went to their place. She speaks to Blaise only in Korean, rubbed off on me too I guess." He said nonchalantly.

By the time they had reached the Great Hall, most tables were full, so they sat together. It was rather uncomfortable in the beginning, as they were the only two at the table. Hermione noticed that the table would present food even if there wasn't a student from each house at the table, probably because there weren't an equal amount of students in all the houses, but as long as you were sitting with someone from a different house, the food would appear.

Tonight, half a roast chicken, a bowl of mashed potatoes, two bowls of broccoli and cheese soup, and a jug of pumpkin juice appeared in the middle of the table. Without saying much, they dug in.

Malfoy had kept their conversation going, peppering her with questions and her opinions on Greek mythology every few bites. She could confidently say that was one of the more interesting and engaging conversations she's had in a good while.

Malfoy was in her dreams again that night.

She was in a large room, one she had seen before. Malfoy manor, drawing room. But this time, it was not her that was pinned under Bellatrix, it was him. Her forearm was held against his throat, while her right knee pinned him to the floor.

To her left, Narcissa was on the floor pleading for her sister to stop while Lucius held onto her, holding her in place. She felt two sets of hands on her, one person on each side, holding her in place and keeping her head trained on him on the floor.

"He betrayed the Dark Lord, Cissy." Bellatrix whispered next to Draco's ear, loud enough that it could be heard over Narcissa's whimpers and begging.

"He's just a boy." Narcissa tried to reason with her sister. "He can do better if you gave him another chance."

"We don't know that for sure, now do we?" Bella was looking directly at Hermione now. Was she even breathing? "We know his... palate has changed recently."

"She's… nothing…" Draco managed to get out.

"Oh really? Nothing?" Bellatrix mused, her tone sent shivers down Hermione's spine.

"Nothing." It came out strangled, almost as though it wasn't the pressure against his throat that made him sound like that.

"Draco dear, you've got to be a better liar." Was all she said before she brought out her knife and started carving into her nephews arm, over the Dark Mark.

His screams echoed off the walls, and Hermione saw five other Death Eaters rush towards the Malfoys and hold him away from Bellatrix, Lucius was trying so hard to get to his son, it took three people to hold him back.

His screaming kept getting louder and louder, tears were freely falling from her eyes and she tried to get to him too. She didn't know why, she just felt like she needed to get to him, even if it was the last thing she did.

Screaming.

It was not coming from her dreams anymore.

Draco.

Her eyes flung open and she rushed to stand, the sudden movement almost made her sit back down when the blood rushed to her head. But his screaming was horrible.

She got out of her room and crossed the short distance towards his room. His door was unlocked, so she let herself in. Honestly, it wouldn't have mattered if he minded that she was in his room, she just wanted the screaming to stop.

"Malfoy! Malfoy!" She tried shaking him awake, he just kept screaming. "DRACO!" His eyes flew open. "You're safe… safe." She was cradling him in her arms, trying to calm the pain away. He grabbed onto her arms, but something was hot and sticky against her.

She looked down at his arm, it was bleeding.

"You're bleeding." She was still in a daze, her brain not fully awoken yet. "We need to get you to the hospital wing!" As she made to stand up, Malfoy tightened his grip on her.

"No. No hospital wing." He croaked out.

"But you're injured, we need to get you healed or you're going to bleed out." Hermione tried to reason with him. Her just shook his head.

"Fine, but at least let me take a look at it." It took him a while, but he nodded. She took his left arm and brought it towards her. Where his Dark Mark once was, a tattered mess of skin and blood remained. Then it all hit her, it was exactly like her dream. Bellatrix was slashing and cutting his arm at the exact same spot where he was now bleeding from.

But that was her dream, this is real life. This couldn't be possible… could it?

"Her… mio… ne." He groggily said, but that was enough to get her back on track. His arm.

She accioed her wand from her room and began to work on it. She had become very good at healing spells, she had memorised a wide variety of them when they were on the run, and came in very handy.

Seconds then minutes passed, she was still muttering the healing incantation to stop the bleeding and mend the wounds. There were just so many.

When she had finally patched the last wound, Malfoy was still awake, not fully as he had lost quite a bit of blood. She cleaned his arm, then his bed, and got bandages to wrap around his arm just in case. He was in between awake and asleep by the time she was done, Merlin was she tired, the adrenaline was wearing off.

As she was about to get up and tuck him in, she felt a tug. He gripped her arm with his unharmed hand and pulled her back down.

"Sing for me?" His words were so tender and sweet, words she would never have used to describe Draco Malfoy. His request had caught her off guard, she didn't even know if she could sing. Sure she sang to herself when she did something, but it was usually when she was alone and when she was sure no one else could hear her. But the probability of him remembering anything tomorrow was slim, so she sat back down and took his hand in both of hers. She cleared her throat softly before she started.

"Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high. There's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby." She began, it was the first song that came to her, "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" by Judy Garland. Her father used to sing it to her whenever she had nightmares or when she was scared of the thunderstorms.

"Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue. And the dreams that you dare to dream, really do come true." He stopped moving and finally settled down.

"Someday I'll wish upon a star, and wake up where the clouds are far behind me. Where troubles melt like lemon drops, away above the chimney tops, that's where you'll find me." He closed his eyes fully.

"Somewhere over the rainbow, blue birds fly. Birds fly over the rainbow, why then, oh why can't I?" His breathing became more even.

"If happy little blue birds fly, beyond the rainbow. Why, oh why can't I?" She finished the song, and he had began to snore lightly. She smiled to herself before she pulled the blanket up around him, tucked him in, and left his room.

She couldn't get the image of him sleeping out of her head. He looked so young... he was young, they all were.


	10. Almost Like A Fairytale

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song recs:
> 
> Charlotte Lawrence - Joke's On You
> 
> Chase Atlantic - Into It
> 
> Day6 - Congratulations

Sunlight pierced her eye when she finally woke up, it was sunny out for once. There were birds singing, a gentle breeze blew through her window. The day looked like it had come out from a fairytale movie, it was almost nice enough to make her forget about the events that happened last night.

Almost.

She reluctantly got out of her bed, knowing that once she did, there was a possibility that she might run into Malfoy. His sleeping face drifted to the front of her mind once again, he really did look rather dashing when his face wasn't in its perpetual scowl.

She changed and got ready as usual, taking some extra time on her hair. She knew she was trying to delay the inevitable, but that didn't stop her. By the time she had finished putting her hair in the french plait, it had taken her five extra minutes to get out of her room.

"It's now or never." She said to herself. "Might as well get it over with."

Malfoy was standing in the kitchenette, his back to her. She noticed there were two cups of tea on the counter in front of him.

"You're out late today." He didn't turn around.

"I took my time getting ready." She said plainly as she crossed the distance to the kitchenette. He handed her the other cup of tea.

"One teaspoon of sugar, yes?" Malfoy had a smirk on his lips and raised his eyebrow.

"H-how did you know?" Quite frankly, she was stunned when he said anything to her that wasn't an insult, even after yesterday's conversation over dinner. It was even more surprising that he knew how she liked her tea.

"I know things." He waved her off. "Granger, about last night…"

"Your bandages!" She cut him off when she remembered that he had gotten injured. She didn't ask for permission, she grabbed his arm as gently as she could and assessed the wound. It hadn't bled through the bandages overnight, but it was still a good idea to change it. "Hold on." He didn't fight her as she started to remove the bandages. When the bandage came off, he flinched a bit, but she held firm, not letting him draw his arm back completely.

His wound was still tender, still pink around the edges, and she could see bits of scab and the dark markings that were once his Dark Mark.

"Thank you." Her hands stilled and she looked up at him.

"Did Draco Malfoy just say thank you? I didn't know you knew that word." She tried to keep the air around them light. He rolled his eyes at her jab, but didn't bite back.

"I'm still a Pureblood male, I was taught manners as a child. I know the rough concept of the words." Was he joking around with her? She let out a small laugh as she started to clean around his wound, making sure nothing got infected.

When his arm was wrapped in fresh bandages, she casted a charm that would ensure the bandage would remain sterile throughout the day.

"Are you not curious about last night?" He asked her.

"I am, I just don't know what to think of it."

"Wow, Hermione Granger not knowing something." He smiled, actually smiled, and she thought that he should smile more often. "I have a couple theories." But he didn't go on.

"Well? What are you waiting for? Spit it out!"

At her impatience, he chuckled. "Maybe this is a conversation best had for when we have more time to thoroughly go through all the possibilities."

"You're frustrating! Why lead me on, then not tell me?" She huffed. "Okay fine, tonight after our meeting with McGonagall."

"That's fine. But we better get going or we're going to miss breakfast."

The day trugged on slowly, she was eager to know whatever theories Malfoy had, even if she was scared about what that would imply for the both of them. She just needed to know what she was dealing with, once she knew, she could break it down and hopefully solve it.

"I'm glad you are getting along with Mr. Malfoy." McGonagall had said to her when asked how Malfoy was. She had arrived early for their meeting, as she usually did.

"We just started getting along, but I think we've found a sweet spot for optimal efficiency." Hermione replied, McGonagall just chuckled at her.

"You're not robots my dear, it's about relationships you build as well as the work you do." McGonagall had a soft spot for her students, she loved seeing them getting along, even if it was usually masked by her stern front. She and Hermione had slipped into casual conversation rather easily after that while they waited for Malfoy.

He had joined them after ten minutes. "Sorry I am late." He said as he entered.

"Oh, you're not late, I'm just early." Hermione motioned for him to take the seat next to hers. They sat facing the headmistress in her office, waiting for her to start with today's agenda.

"Okay, so I've just got a couple things to run by the two of you today," McGonagall started. "Firstly, I wanted to check in with the both of you and make sure you and your other prefects are holding up alright?" Malfoy and she nodded. "Wonderful. Okay, secondly, I was thinking of having a party or get together for all the students this year. I know inter house relationships were rather strained this past week or so, so I was hoping to hold an event that could help with the tension. Do you have any suggestions?"

Hermione thought for a few seconds before she was hit with the perfect solution. "We could have a Yule Ball!"

"Yule Ball?"

"It was wonderful for interschool relations, I don't see why it wouldn't be good for inter house relationships too."

"That could be a possibility, do you have any suggestions?" McGongall turned to Malfoy.

"I think it would be a good idea, but going off what happened the last time, people are going to end up sticking with their own houses." Malfoy said.

"What about a masquerade ball or party then? If people don't know who they're talking to in the moment, it might spark more friendships without the unnecessary stereotypes getting in the way."

"That's a brilliant idea Miss Granger," McGonagall seemed to really like her idea. "Get back to me when you have drafted a more solidified plan. You will have to think of some way to include the lower years as well."

"There can be a separate event for them, seeing that they will be together longer than the upper years. So maybe something like a carnival or friendly game show of sorts?" Hermione was spitballing at this point, too excited over the events that she could plan.

"We can discuss this further next week, but I like your plans already." McGonagall started to stand. "Just talk it over with your other prefects and plan everything out more, I shall let you know the budget and logistics when we next meet."

McGonagall dismissed them and they made their way back to their living quarters, she had been buzzing with anticipation as soon as they left the office.

They had barely made it into the common room before she turned to face him. "Speak. Your theories. Now." It was basically a command.

As they made their way to the couches, Draco first started off by going over his experiences thus far.

"I only started having those dreams a couple days after we all got to Hogwarts, it didn't start out as nightmares for me. I remember there was a little boy in them, he was in almost all of them. He had blonde hair and brown eyes if I'm not mistaken."

"I've seen that little boy too! He grabbed me so hard in a dream, I woke up with bruises the next day!" She interjected, he just looked at her with exasperation. "Sorry, continue."

"The little boy usually led me around the mansion. The first time I saw him, it was just him, you weren't in it. I remember seeing that he was going to say something to me, but then I woke up. The next dream I had, you were in it."

"The fire." Hermione breathed.

"The fire." He agreed. He didn't know just how much he should tell her, maybe she hadn't heard his fathers goading and insults like he had. Whatever it was, he knew he still had to keep her at an arm's length, better safe than sorry. "Then there was that time when you were hit with the cruciatus curse. I had a dream about that the same night, when you were in the… drawing room."

She just nodded and held her covered forearm.

"There was also a little girl." Granger started, she was facing the fireplace, it was starting to get chilly. "She led me around once like the little boy, but then she disappeared and kept begging for me to find her."

"I was there too."

She turned to him, "I don't remember seeing you in that dream."

"It was like I was tagging in on your dream more than anything. I couldn't make my own decisions, I was just following you around."

It took her a few seconds to compute and breakdown that piece of information before she started talking again.

"I'm guessing you saw the name?" She asked.

Lyra Aster Malfoy-Granger. That was her name.

"I wouldn't think too much into it." He assured her.

"Why not?"

"They don't seem to be entirely made up of memories or probable scenarios." At the look of confusion on her face, he continued. "Like that dream last night. Aunt Bella has never tortured me, especially not with you around, you would have remembered it. Also, the mansion we've been seeing, I've never seen one like that before, and I've seen a lot. So I would assume that these nightmares take some 'creative' liberties with their torture. But whatever happens to us in the dreams, gets translated into real life, and that's been proven three out of three times now."

"That makes sense," Granger began, he could see the cogs in her brain turning, not that they ever stopped. "From what we've talked about, I would think that whatever dream we're in, we can assume that the other is in it as well even if we can't physically see each other. Like that night with the little girl, I never saw you in the dream, but you experienced what happened all the same."

"Also, even if one of us is awake, but if the other one is asleep and dreaming, the one awake could still be affected by whatever is happening in the dream, since I was awake when I was hit with the cruciatus curse. And so far, I've had complete control in my decisions and to a certain extent, my actions. So it would be safe to conclude that we are mentally conscious during these dreams. And we can also assume that when we see one another in a dream, it's actually us in the dream, assuming both of us are asleep. Kind of like lucid dreaming then, except it's shared with another person." She spoke at a breakneck speed.

"Lucid dreaming?" He asked.

"It's where you're aware you're in a dream, and you can somewhat control your actions and whatever happens in the dream." She explained.

Draco thought it over for a few seconds, letting all the information and theories they had just discussed fall into place for him.

"Well, what do we do now? It's clearly a curse or something along those lines." He started.

"We could go to McGonagall for help. Even if she doesn't know what this is, she could give us access to the restricted section." Granger suggested. It wasn't a bad idea, but he did have his reservations about it.

"What would we tell her?"

"Everything I suppose. There's no point in keeping things a secret."

"True… but don't you think it might alert our attacker, or attackers? What if they're watching us?"

Granger stiffened. "Following us…" she trailed off.

"Yes?" He urged her to continue.

"The other night, around the first couple of nights back, I could have sworn that someone was following me. It was like something inside me was telling me to get back here as fast as possible, but I never heard or saw anyone or anything." She had paled at the memory. "I almost forgot about it because I haven't felt anything like it since."

"I think we should try to make it back here as soon as possible, or at least travel in bigger groups." He suggested.

"What about patrols? That's done in twos."

"Do you feel safe enough with just one other person with you?" He didn't know why he was worried about her safety, but something just felt wrong about this whole situation, and he had seen enough death for his lifetime.

"Not exactly. Most of the prefects that I've partnered myself with are lower years, since I thought it would be better to have an upper year and a lower year together."

"Well, we can go through the roster and change it up for the upcoming ones. We can either partner ourselves with upper years or be partnered together." The suggestion had left his mouth before he could stop it, but he knew it was a logical one, even if he might come to regret it.

"Okay then, let's try to find out more information on our… predicament, before we go to McGonagall for help." She stood and made her way to her room. "Try not to dream about me Malfoy." She sent him a smirk that could rival his and closed the door behind herself.

As he threw himself onto his bed, the events from the night before played in his head. Whatever had happened to him, he was thankful that she hadn't taken him to the hospital wing. It wasn't because he had much faith in her healing skills, even if he knew they were passable, he didn't trust anyone really. It was because he would rather have bled out than let anyone else see the dark symbol that had been permanently tattooed into his skin. He knew that symbol was where most of his anger and resentment had spawned from.

'Maybe the scars would cover it, that would definitely be an improvement.' Had been his last thought before he succumbed to the darkness.


	11. Atone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song recs:
> 
> OneOKRock - The Beginning
> 
> Billie Eilish - Idontwanttobeyouanymore
> 
> Bazzi - Mine

He had retired to the Slytherin common room that day after classes, he was supposed to meet Theo before dinner. He had wanted to play a few rounds of Exploding Snap to get his mind off school work.

Theo slung his arm around Draco's shoulders when he had finally arrived after his last class. "Did you miss me?" He said with a wink.

"No, now get ready to have your arse handed to you." He shoved his friend off and took the cards from his robe.

Draco had won the first round, Theo had sulked and demanded a rematch.

On their third round, Draco noticed Crabbe and Goyle huddling in a corner, whispering to one another. He hadn't noticed their absence at his side since the term had begun, he was too busy with classes and head duties, and most of his free time was spent with Blaise and Theo instead. He was about to wave them over to join the game, but they had ducked their heads and shuffled to another corner before they saw him.

"Odd, I haven't heard much from Crabbe and Goyle." Draco commented.

"All the better. The less they talk, the more brain cells I keep." Theo said offhandedly, he was never close friends with either boy, mainly keeping to Blaise and Pansy.

"I just wonder what they're up to. They've usually caused some sort of trouble by now." It was true, there hadn't been any incidents involving either boy since the term had started, which was odd since their less than bright bulbs would usually get them in some sort of trouble, usually within the first week.

"I see them with Daphne more now, guess they've found a new leader." He shrugged. "They're together all the time, following her around the school like her loyal pets. Miss them do you?"

"No, not really. Just remembered they came back is all." They played two more rounds before they headed off to the Great Hall. In total, Draco had won three out of the five rounds, leaving Theo in a rather tender mood.

"Don't play with me if you're going to be all moody about it, you know I never lose." Draco teased his sulking friend.

"One time. I just need to beat you one time." He grumbled, making Draco laugh even more. They went to get seats at two tables that were somewhat near one another, they were supposed to start on their Charms homework together with Blaise after dinner. When Blaise finally walked into the Great Hall, Theo waived him over and he sat at a table not too far from theirs.

Dinner passed by as usual, nothing too exciting really.

"So, time to get started?" Which was Blaise's greeting when he had caught up with the other two boys by the doors. "Where to? Library, common room, or your dorm?"

"My dorm, people annoy me." And they headed off in the direction of the Heads dormitory.

It didn't take very long before Draco was done with his homework, it was a short essay on the properties, side effects and dangers of a memory charm of their choice. Blaise was done a few minutes after him, Theo was still reading through the material.

"You need help there?" Blaise asked as he got out of his seat to stretch his long limbs.

"All these words are giving me a headache." Theo said exasperatedly, shoving the book away from him. "I've spent two hours reading this, and all I've got out of it is a bloody migraine."

"We can help you, what don't you get?" Draco said as he looked over at the other boy's chosen memory charm. He had chosen a charms that alters memories, whereas Blaise and himself had chosen the Obliviate charm that removes the memory all together.

"I would be able to do this bloody essay if I could just read the damn book!" His anger was starting to rise. "Bloody words won't stop moving, it's like the bloody staircase!"

"Calm down, mate. We'll work through this together." Draco said in as soft a voice as possible without sounding condescending, he had always known that Theo had trouble reading, which is why he hated studying. Theo was smart, there was no doubt about that, but rather than learning from books or lectures, Theo excelled when more practical and hands-on approaches were used instead.

Draco and Blaise sat on either side of Theo and took turns reading aloud some key phrases that helped with his essay, it took a few minutes, but Theo had calmed down enough to absorb the information and start on his essay. He was done with his essay within the hour, looking less angry and more annoyed if anything.

"Fucking finally." He threw his quill onto the table and leaned back in his chair. "Thanks guys, I couldn't have done it without you."

"You really can, just need to take it slowly is all it is, one word at a time." Blaise said, patting him on the shoulder. After they had kept all their books and parchments, they played a few more rounds of Exploding Snap, Theo still wanting to beat Draco just once.

After a few rounds, the clock on the mantel dinged, signifying it was 11 o'clock. "Oh shit, I've got rounds tonight." Draco remembered. "Well, I'll see you guys off then go for my rounds."

"Who you got rounds with tonight?" Theo asked. "Someone cute?"

"Some bloke from Ravenclaw, so probably." Draco winked at his friend. The boys joked and teased as they made their way to the Slytherin common room, where he watched his friends pass through the door before he turned to meet his patrol buddy.

Patrol was boring to say the least, nothing happened, and his partner was a fifth year Ravenclaw who was so scared of Draco, he did not utter a single word the entire night. After they had gone through the sections of the castle they were assigned to, the younger boy had practically ran back to his common room, making Draco roll his eyes at him as he walked back to his room.

The next day, Draco had a task to get started, finding out something about what was happening to them. So he had set off to the library after lunch, he had a free period, to get started on whatever research he could manage for that day.

As he brought five huge tomes about charms and more obscure potions, he caught sight of a head of blonde hair, and quickly darted out of sight. Astoria. He knew he had to talk to the girl someday, they were arranged to be married after all, but he never knew what they had in common. To be fair, he never knew if they had any similar interests because he never talked to her.

Let it be a problem for a different day, he already had enough on his plate as of now.

He had spent three hours going through all the books he had brought, and five heavy and old books later, he was still no closer to figuring out what was done to them. Resigned, he made his way out of the library to get ready for the last class of the day, Advanced Potions.

As he exited, he saw a familiar sight, Pansy and Daphne were walking away from the library, their backs were turned to him. They huddled together and seemed to be talking in quiet whispers as they rounded the corner. This was becoming more of a common occurrence now, they seemed to be together all the time. His curiosity got the better of him, and he followed them slowly and as quietly as he could manage, stopping just around the corner.

"What do you want me to do now then?" Pansy asked in a frustrated tone.

"Something! Anything!" Daphne snapped back. "You're just doing this to get back at me aren't you."

"Why would you say that? You know me better than that." She sounded hurt by the accusation Daphne had sprung on her.

"And it's because I know you that I ask it." Daphne replied, not sensing the hurt in the other girl's voice.

"This is over. Get over it." Pansy said in a tone that indicated that the conversation was over, and he heard her walk away in a rushed pace. Daphne followed a few steps later, but she didn't seem to be trying to catch up with the other girl. Pansy was never the girl to walk quickly, she preferred to stroll around like she had all the time in the world, which used to annoy him to no ends, especially when he was stuck behind her when he was rushing.

Well this was new, Pansy and Daphne never got into arguments, and even if they did, it was about something small and petty, like who looked better in a dress they both had. But never has he ever heard either of them take it personally, and Pansy definitely sounded like she took it personally.

He thought about what they could be arguing about, thinking back, he hadn't really heard much from either girl since fifth year. The entirety of sixth year they were practically joined at the hip, they were like a package deal.

'They'll figure it out. They always do,' he thought and shrugged it off and headed to class.

When he got to the classroom, Granger had set up their station as she always did, in a way that would make the front cover of an organisers magazine.

"Granger." He greeted her, she just nodded in reply.

"Alright class, we're going to be brewing something rather exciting today. Tricky, but exciting." Professor Slughorn had announced as he entered the classroom. "As you know, floo season is almost upon us, so I thought it would be helpful to Madam Pomfrey to contribute to her Pepperup Potion store. Pepperup is a tricky potion to get right, very easy to get wrong. So that is your assignment for today's class."

Granger started on collecting the ingredients for the potion, while Draco got a cauldron for them to work with. The rest of the class passed by in mostly silence, focus was needed for this potion in particular. If too much Hellebore was added, it would be too potent, causing the drinker to turn into steam, and if too little ginger was added, the entire potion would be wasted.

As usual, they had finished first, as soon as that signature peppery smell wafted through the air, he knew that it was a perfect brew.

"Brilliant Miss Granger and Mr Malfoy! Absolutely brilliant! Ten points to Gryffindor and Slytherin." Professor Slughorn was so impressed by their potion, he collected and sent it to Madam Pomfrey straightaway.

The rest of the day passed by with nothing to note, he just had another night of rounds, this time with a sixth year Hufflepuff girl who would not stop talking. No matter how silent he was, all he heard was the sound of her voice and her opinion on the best way to cook potatoes. For your information, she thought baked potatoes were the only way to cook potatoes, or at least the best way.

Never had he been more relieved to finally be back in his dorm as just then. Clearly he had forgotten what was lurking in his sleep.

'That's beautiful,' was the first thought that ran through her brain when she opened her eyes. There was an ornate chandelier hanging directly above her, she was laying on her back, in the middle of what seemed to be a ballroom that she had never seen before. When she stood up, it took her a few seconds to realise that she was in fact in another dream, and pure anxiety rushed through her entire body.

"Not again." She groaned out loud.

"Granger?" She turned towards the direction of the voice, but she was standing alone in the ballroom.

"Who's there?" She backed up a few steps.

"Me. Malfoy." For some reason, hearing his name had relaxed her, even if it was only by a bit.

"Where are you?"

"I don't know. Stay there and keep talking, I'll make my way to you." He instructed, his voice did seem to be getting closer and closer.

"Do you have any idea where we are?" She looked around, it wasn't the same ballroom they were in before. This one was mostly covered in brown wood, with hints of white peeking through the panels. There were deep scarlet curtains hanging from the windows on one side of the room, and a white grand piano at one corner. "This one's different from the others."

"Found you." The first thing she had noticed was his pale blonde hair peeking through the doors, followed by his entire body.

He had walked over to her, standing in the middle of the room. They took a glance around the vast room, nothing seemed to be amiss. It was a plain ballroom. But just as that thought had formed in Hermione's brain, the door that Malfoy had just come through had slammed shut, trapping them in this room. They rushed over to the doors and tried to pry them open, but it would not budge, they then tried the windows. Once again, they were met with no luck. Even when Malfoy had thrown the stool of the piano at the window, the windows had held strong but the stool had broken into pieces instead.

"Fuck." Malfoy said angrily after they had tested all the possible exits.

"We're stuck here."

"No shit, captain obvious." He rolled his eyes at her.

"What I meant by that is that there must be some reason why we're stuck here. All our dreams so far had a purpose or an end goal. Either to confuse or hurt us, mostly the latter, but there was a reason we get stuck in these dreams." When he finally understood what she had said, she continued. "So we need to find out what we're supposed to be doing here."

They each took half of the enormous room and began to look for clues or anything that could indicate why they were trapped there. After what seemed like ten minutes, she noticed that the wood panels on the walls had what seemed to be words scratched into them.

"Malfoy, I think I found something." She called him over.

"What is it?" He rushed to her side, squinting to the spot she was pointing at. The words were very small, almost impossible to make out what each alphabet was.

"I think that's an 'A,' followed by a 'T,' and I think that's an 'O,' but I can't make out the rest." Hermione's eyes hurt from trying to make out what the word was.

"Looks like an 'N' and an 'E'." Malfoy completed.

"Atone?" Hermione ran her hands over the markings, it was slightly bumpy, indicating that only some of the scratches were deep. "Are you sure?"

He pointed back and forth at the two alphabets she could not make out. "Looks like it." But as soon as he had finished, his finger had grazed hers and a wave of pain coursed through her entire body and she fell to her knees. She could assume that Malfoy had felt the same pain because he too was on his knees, hands on the ground in front of him.

"What the fuck was that?" Malfoy yelled, he was panting.

"I don't know," she replied weakly, it was like she had just been hit by a car.

"You good there?"

"I'll survive," she got up very slowly, her weight was mostly on the wall. "It definitely felt like the cruciatus curse."

"Sounds about right." He was on his feet too now, one hand stealing himself against the wall. "Maybe let's not touch one another, just to be safe." She agreed, but she noticed something else just then.

"Is it me, or is this wall… vibrating?" She asked him, she knew he could feel it too.

"Move back." And they both took a few steps back, and just as they did, the wall had started to move towards them.

The wall was moving.

No wait, all of them were moving.

They were closing in on them, and the huge ballroom started to feel stuffy and too small. She looked to Malfoy, "what now?" She knew he didn't have the answer either, because she had never seen the look of fear on his face as plainly as she did then.

"Get to the middle. Look for more clues before we run out of time. We can discuss what we've found when we've woken up." He didn't wait for her reply and had started off to the other side of the room. He was paying more attention to the walls now, looking for more words that might be scratched into the wood, so Hermione followed suit.

What felt like six minutes later, Hermione found another word on the wall with the doors. She didn't call Malfoy over as she tried to make out this word. Luckily it was bigger than the last one, making it easier to make out. The only problem was, it wasn't an English word, it seemed to be a Chinese word.

Thinking on her feet, she traced the word into her skin using her nail, putting just enough pressure for it to leave a semi permanent mark without inflicting too much pain. She had to repeat the action a few times before it finally broke skin and left a mark. Her eyes were filled with tears by the time she was done.

She wiped the tears in her eyes and the blood that was now collecting on her forearm, and continued on. As they looked, they had to continuously step back, or the walls would press up against them, making them very aware that they were working on borrowed time.

Approximately fifteen minutes had passed, and they were practically back to back, and every time they bumped into one another, pain rippled through their entire bodies, causing them to scream out, but they had to persevere.

"I don't think there's anything left." Malfoy said in between breaths, the last wave of pain leaving their bodies.

But before she could reply, the walls had moved in more, causing her to move back, pressing her back firmly against Malfoys'. Neither of them could move away if they wanted to, they were sandwiched between the four walls. The pain had finally become unbearable enough that she had passed out in the dream, but she woke up screaming in her bed. The last thing she remembered seeing was the same chandelier as when the dream first started, this time, she was crying her eyes out in pain.

She sat upright once she realised she was back in her room. Her whole body was still on fire, she could still feel all her muscles slowly relaxing from contracting so much during the night.

It was still dark in her room, the sun had not risen yet, in fact, it was only three in the morning.

She lifted her left forearm and saw that she was still bleeding, she got out of bed and quickly copied the symbol that was on her arm onto a piece of scrap paper. After that, she listed out all the other words she had found, three more, making it five words in total. She cast a quick healing spell on her arm and the wound sealed up. Grabbing the list, she made her way to Malfoy's room.

He was already in the living room when she made it out of her room, he had the same idea as her it seemed.

"Are you okay?" She asked, he just nodded.

"How many more did you find?" Straight to the point.

"Four, you?"

"Five." He held out his list. "I don't know what they mean, it's all different languages."

They made their way to the couches, placing their lists on the coffee table in front of them. Ten words in total, and they seemed to be in different languages.

"Any ideas?" She looked up at him, he just pointed at the first word they found.

"Ten galleons says that they all mean the same thing."

Atone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know what you think and leave a review :)


	12. Light

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song recs:
> 
> Day6 - Zombie
> 
> eaJ - Pacman
> 
> LeeHi - Breathe

They hadn't gone back to sleep that night, the aftershocks of having been hit with the cruciatus curse multiple times did not let them. Their muscles would spasm and tighten on their own accord, often leading to incredibly painful cramps. To distract themselves from the pain, they had opted to go to their own mini library and start researching.

They had obviously started with dictionaries, and Hermione was glad she did not take Malfoy up on his bet, she just saved herself ten galleons. All the words they had found did mean the same word in different languages, ATONE. Atone for what, they were working still through it.

"Do you have anything for first period?" Hermione asked after they had gotten ready for breakfast, she could feel the muscles in her left forearm vibrating, signaling a spasm was about to happen. She tried to massage the pain away, but she knew it was a short term solution.

"Not today, why?" He replied, rubbing circles into the palm of his left hand.

"Just thinking that I could use some help in the library. We can meet up after breakfast and get some research done before patrol." She suggested, even if he was not going with her, she still would have gone by herself. "I'm just thinking that we could spend most of our time in between classes working on this, that way we can go to McGonagall with something sooner. I don't like not knowing something."

"Sure. I have a free period after four, then I've got herbology at five, I'll be in the library then. I'm usually free after Transfiguration, but I've already promised Theo that I'd study with him today." Hermione nodded, and with their plans set for the day, they left for the Great Hall.

Sitting at the same table as Malfoy in the library was something new, in fact, sitting with anyone in the library was new for her. Most of the time she spent in the library, she was alone, seeing as to how neither Harry nor Ron much liked it here. They always chose to study in either the Great Hall or the Gryffindor common room. Hermione on the other hand preferred a quiet place where she could really immerse herself in the assignment.

They had spent their entire morning reading the many books, scrolls and even tablets that they thought might have some indication of what was happening to them. Ten ginormous books in, Hermione was beginning to feel frustrated, and sleepy, despite it only being half past eleven in the morning.

"Keep your eyes open, Granger. If you fall asleep, I'm going to fall asleep." Malfoy said to her without looking up from the scroll he was scanning.

"I'm not falling asleep," but even she knew it was a weak attempt at defending herself, her head was so close to hitting the book in front of her.

"Whatever." He mumbled as he turned the page.

Knowing he could see her nodding off gave her a small boost in energy, she was not going to lose to Malfoy. Logically, she knew they were on the same side, but there would always be this underlying tension between them, Gryffindors versus Slytherins. So she sat upright, shook out the sleep in her eyes, and continued to read, scanning paragraphs and pages for any indication of linking dreams to reality.

By the time lunch had rolled around, she was more than glad for something else to look at and had practically jumped out of her seat. Never has she ever left the library feeling more frustrated than when she had entered, she usually found the answer for whatever question she had in there.

Transfiguration with Harry, Ron, and Malfoy was always tense, because that meant that it was yet another class with the Slytherins. Where both houses had mostly kept to themselves previously, it seemed like the entirety of the teaching staff had agreed to partner the two houses together whenever they got the chance.

"Guess I'm lucky in love." Blaise battered his eyelashes at her as he settled into the seat next to hers, they were partnered for the rest of the term. Not that she minded, she knew that Blaise would pull his part on any assignments, he was as smart as herself and Malfoy.

"You sound ridiculous," she rolled her eyes teasingly at him. "Just get your head on right, I won't accept anything but top grades."

"Yes ma'am." He put his hand to his eyebrow in a salute, which made her giggle. She was never one for giggling, but there was something about Blaise that always seemed to drag that sound from her lips.

Looking around the class, she saw that Harry was partnered with Theo Nott, and Ron was partnered with Malfoy. That was not going to be a happy couple, she could only hope that they didn't kill one another in class. The rest of the class had gone by relatively fast, and they were done before the bell rang. Harry and Ron were waiting for her by the door.

"You want to study together in the Great Hall? Might as well get today's assignments out of the way." Harry said to her as they began walking.

"Who are you and what have you done with my best friends?" Hermione looked between the two boys.

Harry bumped his shoulder into hers and laughed. "We've just learnt from the best, haven't we, Ron?" Ron just flashed her a goofy smile as she linked her arms with her best friends and made their way.

They sat on one of the middle tables in the Great Hall, with the seating returning to how it was before, Harry slid into the seat next to hers on the bench, with Ron sitting across from him. She and Harry just happened to be sat facing Crabbe and Goyle who were at the table closest to the wall. They looked to be speaking quietly to one another, their heads were almost touching. She eyed them for a moment before she brought her books out.

"How've you been 'Mione?" Ron asked as he set up his parchment. "Sorry that Harry and I have been kinda swamped with assignments to hang out recently."

"It's fine, honestly. I'm just glad you're serious about this, it's nice seeing you have passion for this." And it was the truth, she could not have felt more proud of the two boys than she was right now, seeing them working hard for something they believed in.

She debated telling them about the dreams she had been having with Malfoy, but decided against it, she didn't want to distract them from their course work. "I've just been stressed, dealing with a couple things. But I'm sure I'll figure it out in no time, I've got someone helping me through this." It was somewhat the truth, vague, but the truth nonetheless.

"You sure you're good?" Harry asked, his green eyes boring into hers. She nodded because she couldn't trust her voice to be steady.

"I just want to graduate so I can find my parents." Harry and Ron knew about the situation she had put her parents in. Harry reached an arm around her and hugged her, while Ron grabbed her hand from across the table, they could be really caring when it mattered. They stayed like that for a few moments before Hermione straightened her spine and focused on the task at hand. "Okay, enough distractions, let's get back to work."

After fifteen minutes of working on the assignment they had just gotten in class, she saw something flashed in the corner of her eye. She turned her attention to the direction the flash of light had come from, it had come from across the hall. Squinting her eyes to figure out what it was, her eyes settled on what seemed like a metallic item, half hidden by the table. From what she could make out, there was only one possible thing it could be, a blade of some sort. This was alarming as weapons were not allowed on the grounds, unless given explicit permission. Crabbe quickly stashed the item back into his satchel before she could confirm her assumption, but she was pretty sure of what she saw. She got up from her seat, as she was Head Girl, it was her duty to ensure that the castle was a place of learning, not mischief or harm. Harry and Ron gave her a look, she just assured them and made her way towards their table.

When she had made her way to the two Slytherins, they paid her no attention at first, simply continuing on with their conversation. She cleared her throat and worked her voice to sound as commanding as possible. "Excuse me Crabbe, but I believe that you have a banned item. I will need to check your belongings and if a prohibited item is found, I will have to confiscate it from you."

"I believe you're mistaken." Crabbe replied, not bothering to turn around.

"Please empty your satchel onto the table." A couple groups of students were starting to look in her direction.

"Not gonna happen mudblood." He snarled, finally turning his meaty head to look at her. The slur had little to no effect on her anymore, after repeated exposure to the word, it had lost its meaning. However, what did catch her off guard was the pure hate that was dripping out of his eyes.

"I'm going to ask you once more, please empty your belongings onto the table so I may inspect them for any banned items."

"And he's already said he's not gonna do it, mudblood, so fuck off before we make you." Goyle was now standing very close to her, she had not seen him stand up from the bench. His bulky body was only centimeters away from hers, she could feel his breath on her face as he spoke.

"Goyle, please sit down. This is a matter between Crabbe and myself as Head Girl." She tried to say as calmly as possible. She turned to face Crabbe once again, "if you do not place the items on the table yourself, I will be forced to do that. I have given you two warnings to do so."

But just as she extended her hand to reach for his bag, two hands were immediately on either side of her, and before she knew it, she had been thrown onto the ground. The wind had left her lungs by the sheer impact of her hitting the ground. The next moment, she felt hands wrapping around her throat, sudden lack of air was starting to make her lightheaded.

When her brain finally caught up to reality, and what her current situation was looking like, she wandlessly pushed him away from her. He was pushed back several feet away, his expression becoming more feral as he made to stand back up and to lunge at her. But before he reached her, he was tackled sideways, another body had slammed into his and was restraining him.

"Stop this Goyle!" The person had said, she couldn't place the voice, the blood was slowly rushing back into her head.

"GET OFF ME BLOOD TRAITOR!" Goyle yelled back. Surprisingly, Goyle was having trouble fighting against whoever was restraining him, even if he looked to be easily 14 stone himself.

"Stupefy." Hermione finally made it to her feet and stunned the struggling boy. He slumped backwards and whoever was still holding him laid him on the ground somewhat gently.

"Malfoy?" She hadn't meant for the surprise in her voice to be as noticeable as it was, but she genuinely was surprised. "Er, thanks."

"Are you okay?" He had left the unconscious boy alone and made his way over to her to inspect her, he gave her a once over and his eyeline settled on her neck. "You should go see Madam Pomfrey for that." She could feel the beginning of bruises forming around her neck.

"Hermione!" Harry and Ron had made it to her side, they eyed Malfoy suspiciously before turning their attention to her.

"Take her to the hospital wing." Malfoy said to the two boys by her side before he turned to face the two boys that had started this. "Crabbe, come with me." At first it looked like Crabbe was not going to follow him, but decided against any more trouble and stood slowly. Malfoy levitated the unconscious boy and made his way out of the Great Hall, Crabbe following a few paces behind.

"Come on 'Mione, let's get you checked." Harry said as he placed his hand around her shoulders and led her towards the hospital wing.

"I'm gonna kill that bastard." Ron said, grinding his teeth together, his hands curling into fists by his side. They had always been very protective of her, and Hermione could not have loved her two best friends more than she did at that moment. And while it had been Malfoy that had saved her from Goyle's attack, which was something else she would have to thank him for, her two best friends were with her right now and that was all that mattered.

Hermione didn't say anything on the walk to the hospital wing, she let Harry and Ron take the lead. When they arrived, Harry found Madam Pomfrey and informed her what had happened. The elder witch immediately started to cast charms to check for injuries and was shoving multiple potions into her hands for her to drink, quickly stating what each of them were for.

"You best take the rest of the day off today. You're not going to be able to speak for a few hours, that nasty boy really did a number on your throat." Madam Pomfrey said with a hint of anger in her voice. She usually never expressed any emotions, preferring to treat everyone as professionally as possible, but it seemed like she couldn't hold it in this time.

"Thanks Madam Pomfrey." Harry said on her behalf, the witch smiled and patted her on the shoulder before she left her bed.

"How are you feeling now?" Ron asked, he still had the previous anger on his face, but it was now mixed with worry.

"She shouldn't talk, Ron." Harry reminded him before she could reply. "But I'm gonna put my trust in Madam Pomfrey and believe that she's taken care of the worst of it."

Hermione only nodded before she laid back, suddenly feeling very sleepy. One of the potions must have been a sleeping potion.

"We'll leave you to rest. We'll come back after classes to check in on you." Harry said as he hugged her, then continued, "and we'll bring you the class notes and homework assignments."

"Rest well 'Mione." Ron squeezed her hand before they turned and left. She was asleep within seconds.

Seeing Goyle throw Granger down and proceed to strangle her was a sight he never thought he would ever see, one that jarred him from his spot two tables over. He had run over two tables to get to Goyle and had flung his body at the bulkier boy across a table. For one, while Crabbe and Goyle were prejudiced and misogynistic, they were never really violent, physically at least. They used to only stick to hurling insults and relatively harmless hexes, and their choice of targets were usually the lower years. Something drastic must have happened to have changed him so much, the war was an obvious answer, war changes everyone, but he didn't think that was the exact reason why he had targeted Granger. What Goyle had done was beyond wrong and uncalled for, and even if he was not exactly friends with Hermione Granger, he knew no one deserved what he did to her.

They had walked in silence, he kept Crabbe in front of him just in case he decided to make a run for it, and levitated the other boy, choosing to keep him unconscious. He knocked on the door to Professor Slughorn's room and was told to enter. He ushered Crabbe in first before entering.

"Mr. Malfoy! What is the meaning of this?" The professor asked at the sight of the unconscious and levitating body of one Gregory Goyle.

"Greggory Goyle here attacked Hermione Granger after she asked Vincent Crabbe here to empty his belongings on the table on suspicion of having prohibited items." He used their surnames because he knew Slughorn cared about things like that. That was really the only way that the professor knew his students, family prestige and all.

The old professor furrowed his eyebrows. "This is a very serious issue, very troubling indeed, I'll call for the headmistress. But thank you for coming to me first." He had not gone to the headmistress first because he knew that any rule breaking was to go through the head of house first, and only if they deemed it serious enough, would be brought to the headmistresses attention.

McGonagall arrived a few minutes later. "What happened?" She had demanded almost as soon as she was through the door. He gave her the same run down of events, and by the end McGonagall's face was scrunched up in anger.

"Suspension, detention and a restraining charm will be placed on him. He won't be allowed within 50 meters of Miss Granger." Her tone was clipped and to the point. She turned her attention to Crabbe, "Mr. Crabbe, please empty your bag onto the table."

Crabbe had been silent the entire time, like he was trying to blend in with the background, Draco had almost forgotten he was the cause of this. Reluctantly, he started to pull things out of his bag and place them on the table in front of him. He had placed a few rolls of parchment, quills, an inkwell, a few candy wrappers, and lastly what seemed to be a dagger of sorts. At the last item, Slughorn had gasped. It was very ornate, like it was used for rituals or decoration, not something most people just carried around in their bags at school. He couldn't think of a reason why Crabbe would be carrying it around with him.

"Merlin's beard, my boy! Whatever are you doing with this?" The professor exclaimed. As usual, Crabbe did not answer.

"Professor Slughorn asked you a question." Draco said, slightly nudging his shoulder.

"It's none of ya business!" Crabbe said in a clipped tone.

"Very well then. We shall be confiscating this from you. You will get detention for a month for having a dangerous and prohibited item on school grounds. The same charm will be placed on you to ensure you are nowhere near Miss Granger for the rest of the school year." McGonagall said in a voice that could best be described as a mother who was reprimanding a naughty child.

Crabbe just rolled his eyes, grunted, and left the room.

"Mr. Malfoy, thank you for bringing this to our attention, we shall be keeping a close eye on these two boys from now on." McGonagall said as she stared at the still levitating body. "Please let Miss Granger know of these new security measures that have been put in place for her safety. I will talk to Mr. Goyle once he has woken up, you may leave."

He nodded and left the two professors to their talking. He began walking in no particular direction, but then realized that his feet were taking him to the hospital wing, almost as if they had a mind of their own.

There was someone sitting by Hermione's bedside when he opened the doors to the hospital wing. A head of long blonde hair, the shade that was almost as light as his, was sitting by her bed and quietly reading the latest issue of the Quibbler.

"Hello Draco." She hadn't taken her eyes off the magazine when she greeted him. For some reason or another, she had never called him by his surname, the few times that she had spoken directly to him that is. "I knew you would come by sooner or later."

"Lovegood." He said in reply to her greeting.

"She's just resting now, nothing injured too badly. She would probably have a sore throat for a couple days, but that can be easily fixed by drinking cacticus honey." Her tone was so matter-of-fact that it took him a few seconds to think, what the fuck was cacticus honey?

"I'll make a note of that."

"You're a good person Draco." She said as she stood up, her eyes staring straight into his soul. "I can see you want to be alone now, goodbye." And just like that, she left.

He was never going to get used to her airy disposition, there was always something slightly creepy about it. Let alone her eyes, it always seemed like she knew more than she was letting on, and he did not like that one bit.

He sat down in the chair that Lovegood had just vacated and took out a book to read, he might as well get some research done while he waited for her to wake up. He only left her bedside when he needed to use the loo and when he had his Ancient Runes class. He had even taken his dinner by her bedside, in his head he had chalked his need to stay by her bedside as Head duties, nothing more.

"Fancy seeing you here." Granger's scratchy voice had pulled his attention from the book he was reading.

"You're alive. Hooray." Draco deadpanned.

"What are you reading?" Her voice sounded strained, like she had been yelling for hours on end.

"Aren't you supposed to be silent or something? Doesn't your throat hurt?"

"Just a little. Nothing a few cups of tea with honey won't help."

He shook his head, "well, just letting you know, Crabbe and Goyle have been punished. Goyle's been suspended and Crabbe and him both have detention for a month, and aren't allowed within 50 meters of you." He caught her up on what McGonagall had dished out to the two boys.

"That's helpful. Did she find out if Crabbe had the banned item? I think I saw a knife or a dagger, or something in that general family of items." She asked as she sat upright.

"It was a dagger, old looking, probably an heirloom of some sorts. He wouldn't say why he had it, so McGonagall had confiscated it. She looked more pissed than I've ever seen her."

"Well, that's reassuring, I guess. My eyesight hasn't failed me then."

"Maybe next time, you should clue me in on your suspicions."

"I didn't know you were even in the Great Hall."

"I was at the table behind you." He rolled his eyes. "I guess your eyesight is nothing to brag about. Or your spatial awareness."

"I will hex you."

He grinned at her as he packed his bag. "Ready to go back to the dorm?" She nodded and stretched her legs in front of her before she hopped onto the floor. It was just then that he noticed just how small she was, the top of her head barely reached his chin.

They made their way silently back to their dorm.

"Do you think you can handle patrols tonight or should I ask another prefect to be my partner tonight?" he asked when they made it back to the dorm. Tonight would be the first time the both of them would have patrolling duties together.

She shook her head and replied, "no, I should be fine. It's just walking anyway."

"Then in that case, we should leave in half an hour, it's almost curfew." She nodded in reply and disappeared into her room.

He changed into pants that were slightly more comfortable and splashed his face with water a couple of times to freshen up. When he was done, he lounged on the couch and read one of the books they had left on the coffee table that morning. It was a book on the different potions that had effects on the brain. He had read through a couple memory potions, a few healing potions and a few poisons that directly affected the brain before Granger made it back into the living room.

"Ready to leave?" She asked him.

"Yup." he said and jumped to his feet. "Let's try to get rounds done quickly tonight, I'm already tired."

They started with the floor they were on, nothing out of the ordinary so far.

"Thank you for today." Granger said after about ten minutes of patrolling.

"It's nothing. Just protecting a fellow student." He brushed it off. He hadn't done anything particularly amazing, just what he was supposed to.

"I'm pretty sure you saved my life. Again." She seemed annoyed at the word again.

"All in a day's work."

"It really shouldn't be. Our duties should comprise of catching pranksters or wandering couples after curfew, not tackling attackers or searching for killers." He could tell by her tone that it was something she had thought about before. And it was true, they were in a school, not a battlefield. The worst thing they should have to deal with was teenage curiosity or hormones, not murderous intent.

"The world's different, Granger. You of all people should know that."

"Just because I know it, doesn't mean that I have to like it." She grumbled.

"Not asking you to like it, just accept that's how it is now."

"It still sucks."

"Alpacas." He thought he might as well change the subject, or their patrol would lead to more depressing topics.

"What?" She stared at him.

"My favourite animal. Alpacas."

"That's so random." She laughed, "I thought it would be a snake or some other reptile."

"That's stereotyping, Granger. But no, snakes are only my second favourite reptile."

"What's the first? Crocodiles?"

"Turtles." At that, she burst out laughing. He had never heard her laugh like this before, let alone be the cause of the laughter. She had even snorted a few times.

"Turtles?" She wiped tears from her eyes, "why?"

"They're cute." And it was the truth, turtles had a special place in his heart.

"Okay, I'll give you that. They are very cute. Is that why you like alpacas as well?"

"Exactly why." Talking about alpacas brought back memories of the first time he had seen an alpaca. His father had brought him to visit a friend in South America when he was ten, and he just so happened to have a few alpacas on his property. He had wanted to ride on one, but decided against it as he didn't want to tire the animal out, so he was content with patting and playing with the gentle creatures. "What's yours?"

"Favourite animal?" She thought about it for a few seconds, "cats and dogs are simple answers, but I guess the quokka would be one of them as well."

"Quokka? Sounds like a cereal brand."

She chuckled, "no, they're marsupials that are indigenous to islands off the coast of Australia. They're really friendly and have the cutest smiles."

"They smile?"

"Yeah, and they even approach humans. My parents took me to Rottnest Island when I was thirteen and they were everywhere." She smiled, but the smile didn't reach her eyes. "My parents wouldn't stop taking pictures of them, they kept asking me to pose with them whenever one came up to us."

"Sounds like a brave animal."

The rest of their patrol continued in small conversations every now and again. From them he had found out that Granger liked vanilla ice cream, tiramisu (the actual tiramisu, not the cake), and some muggle band named after an insect, the beatles was it?

They had retired to their rooms after their shift, and Draco felt odd when he had flopped onto his bed that night. Light? He felt light.


	13. Got A Date In Mind?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song recs:
> 
> Sara Bareilles - Gonna Get Over You  
> Andra Day - Rise Up  
> Liz Gilles - Fast Car (Cover)

Waking up and not feeling like absolute shit was a rare occurrence for Draco, even if there were no nightmares, he hadn’t been sleeping well since the fourth year. So whenever it happened, he liked staying in bed for a few more minutes just to savour the feeling. Especially as of late, with the nightmares from hell, he was felt it was only appropriate to live in the moment. 

After about an extra ten minutes of just laying in bed, he finally got up and got ready for his check in. This would be his second check in, and if it was anything like last week, it was going to be boring but quick. He made his way to McGonagall’s office after a quick breakfast, after he had greeted her, he ducked into the fireplace and uttered the department he was to report to. 

Today’s check in took slightly longer than last weeks, but it was mainly because he had more spells on his wand history since his classes demanded more spell work. They had to go through all the spells he had done before they escorted him back to the floo and watched him leave. 

Thankful it was done, he exited McGonagall’s office with a slight bow goodbye and headed towards the library. He was not surprised to find Granger sitting at a table that had books piled up as high as she could reach, he was, however, surprised to see Blaise sitting with her. The two didn’t seem to notice him as he made his way over, they were bent over discussing something about their Transfiguration homework. 

He sat down without making a noise, they still didn’t notice he was sitting right across from them, so he pulled out his quill and parchment, picked out one of the books that was nearest to him, it was a book on potions, and began to read. 

It took them fifteen whole minutes before they realised that they weren’t the only ones at the table. 

“Am I interrupting something?” He drawled when he heard Granger yelp when she looked up and to see him sitting directly in front of her. 

“Malfoy!” Her right hand was on her heart, “ you almost gave me a heart attack! When did you come?” 

“Fifteen minutes ago. I’m glad you’ve finally noticed the amazing gift that is my presence.” 

“That’s my fault, Drake. My star does shine brighter than yours,” Blaise was smirking at him, he was always the more dramatic of the two. 

Granger just rolled her eyes at the two of them. “Honestly, it’s like I’m at a table with a couple of attention hungry drama queens.” She huffed, but smiled at their dramatic flair. He didn’t know when it started, but he started to prefer seeing her smile than anything else, even the sarcastic ones he usually saw. 

Clearly, working and living with her had started to take its toll on his psyche. 

“We’re discussing the Transfiguration homework, Granger was giving me some notes,” Zabini said after he had finished chuckling. Draco just shrugged and continued to read the book in front of him, occasionally catching Granger glancing his way in between her discussions with Blaise. 

Before he knew it, a decent amount of time had passed and Blaise shot out of his seat. “Shit! It’s almost time for Herbology!” 

“Why did I even take Herbology?” He sighed and stood up and collected his stuff. 

“Because you can’t stand to be away from me for too long. You’ll get rashes if you do,” Zabini winked at him as he shoved a quill into his bag. 

“That explains things,” he quipped back, and placed his bag over his shoulder as Zabini draped his arm across his shoulder, making their way towards the exit. 

“Don’t miss me too much Hermione.” Zabini blew her a kiss, which she ignored. 

“Malfoy!” She called, “don’t forget that we have a meeting with McGonagall before dinner tonight.” She reminded him, he nodded and walked out with Zabini’s arm still slung over his shoulders. 

They made it to class only three minutes late, thank Merlin for their long legs. Class droned on as usual, they were harvesting silvermoon flowers, one of the most potent, but delicate, healing ingredients in all of Wizarding Europe. The flower was so delicate, that they had to use tweezers to hold the stem of the flower before using the smallest scissors he had ever seen to cut it. One wrong move and the whole flower would turn into dust. 

Brain healing was probably easier. 

Thankfully, the rest of the classes he had today weren’t as tedious. Ancient Runes and Defense went by rather quickly, and before he knew it, he was walking out of Charms class, which was his last class of the day. The only thing he had left on his to-do list was the meeting with McGonagall. 

He had a couple of hours before the meeting, so he decided to make his way to none other than the library. Lately, all his spare time had been spent at the library. 

While he was searching for a book on darker potions and spells, he caught sight of a head of brown hair ducking behind a corner. Recognising that silhouette anywhere, he followed it, curious as to what he was doing at the library, which he had vocally disliked. He watched as Theo slid into the seat next to Astoria, a little closer than would suggest that they were just friends, with a smile he had never seen before on his best friend's face. The usually angry boy looked genuinely happy, happier than he had seen him in a long time. 

Happy. They both looked so happy just being together. Draco wondered if he’d ever get to experience that with anyone. Pansy had just been a fling, sure he knew she was borderline obsessed with him when they were younger, but it never panned out, and eventually she got over her feelings and started treating him as a friend. He actually liked Pansy when she wasn’t trying to get into his pants. 

But seeing Theo and Astoria together made him think of only one thing; that he needed to get out of their arranged marriage contract. Quickly. 

With that happy thought in his brain, he set to work on his research, hoping to whatever beings that he would find something useful. 

He found nothing. 

Again. 

Feeling frustrated, he left the library and made his way to McGonagall’s office for their meeting. Whatever was happening to them was done by someone much smarter than them. They had covered their tracks very well, almost like any record of their predicament had been removed. 

The meeting with McGonagall went over quite quickly, Hermione, him and the other prefects had been working on the plans for the term end celebration almost every night since they had brought it up to the rest of them. The other prefects were so excited by the idea, that the plan had come together seemingly overnight. The entire plan was finalised, excluding budgeting and other smaller technicalities, a couple nights ago when they had met up with the other prefects. McGonagall seemed to be impressed with their plan and made no objections to anything they had brought up. They concluded the meeting and made their way to the Great Hall for dinner together, Granger and McGonagall engaged in small talk with him following behind them. 

When everyone had found their seats for dinner, McGonagall stood at the pedestal and cleared her throat. The hall fell silent immediately. “Good evening everyone, I hope your studies have been progressing pleasantly so far. I have a couple of announcements to make before you can all dig in. Firstly, Madam Pomfrey has asked me to remind everyone that there is a flu going around, so please go to the hospital wing if you are feeling any symptoms, such as a runny nose, or coloured coughs. 

“Secondly, we have decided to hold a term end celebration for the entire school. There will be two events, the first would mainly be for first to fourth years, but other years are welcomed to join, and the other would only be for the fifth to eight years. The first event will be a carnival and fair for everyone, and the event for the upper year students is a Yule Ball. There will be more information regarding these events posted on the bulletin board outside the Great Hall, and more announcements will be made in the following weeks. That will be all, enjoy your dinner,” and as soon as McGonagall turned from the pedestal, the entire hall boomed with excited talking. 

That night, Theo and Blaise had practically begged him to let them study in his dorm, they had a Muggle Studies quiz the next day, and neither of them had paid much attention in that class. When they stepped through the portrait hole, he noticed that Granger was not back yet, then remembered that she had rounds tonight. 

“It’s only the second week of classes and we have so many assignments already,” Theo complained almost as soon as he entered the room. 

“You’re whingeing again,” Blaise said in a sing-song voice. 

“Obviously. He can’t help it, he’s a little bitch,” he said in a matter of fact voice, Theo just stuck his tongue out at him. 

They seated themselves around the coffee table, Theo and Draco sat on the green couch, while Blaise spread himself out on the red one. 

“So why a ball?” Blaise asked as he stretched himself across the couch, much like how a cat would. 

“Inter House unity. Since it worked so well during the Triwizard competition, Granger thought it might help with the houses as well.” 

“Ugh, of course she would,” Theo said with an annoyed tone. 

“Why are you so against anything Hermione does?” Blaise asked him, seemeding genuinely confused by the other boy’s actions.

“Do I really need a reason to dislike someone? She’s such a bitch, all stuck-up and such a know-it-all. I can’t stand being in the same room as her,” Theo spat out. A week ago, Draco would have wholeheartedly agreed with Theo’s sentiment, but since living with her and actually having to interact with her, it had somewhat changed his view on her. Or maybe it was the nightmares from hell they’ve both been subjected to experience that drew them somewhat closer together.

“I don’t get what you’re going on about. She’s a really good friend, a bloody smart one at that, and she’s really caring,” Blaise defended her. 

“Since when were you her knight in shining armour?” Theo snorted. 

“Since she’s my friend, and just like with you, I’d defend my friends from anyone who’s hating on them for no reason,” Blaise’s voice was starting to show hints of annoyance, something that rarely happened with the ever-easygoing boy. 

Sensing the boy’s irritation, Theo changed the subject, “in other news, my father’s being his usual pricky self. Even in hiding, he’s finding new ways to torture me,” Theo’s father, Aloysious Nott, was probably one of the coldest people Draco had ever met, and this was coming from someone who grew up surrounded by people who constantly wore facades, masks, and generally had an icy personality. His father was very strict, it was borderline insane, anything Theo did not do perfectly, he was reprimanded and was forced to repeat it until he could do it perfectly every time. 

“What did he do this time?” Draco asked. 

“I got a letter a couple days ago. It had the usual, thinly veiled threats, orders to follow, telling me how much of a failure I am to the prestigious Nott name,” His tone was casual, but Draco knew that these letters ate away at him. “I burned it like the rest, obviously.” 

After a few seconds of silence, Draco asked, “so who are you thinking of bringing to the ball?” Neither of them handled awkward silences very well. 

“Haven’t got a clue, no one’s caught my eye yet.” Blaise said, knowing full well what Draco was doing. “You got a date in mind yet?” 

“I’ll probably have to go with Granger, Head prefect duties and all.” He replied. He might have sounded resigned to it, but he didn’t completely hate the idea of taking Granger to the dance. The memory of her looking less beaver like during the Yule Ball in their fourth year swam to the front of his mind. No, not less beaver like, beautiful. She looked beautiful. Shaking that thought from his head, he turned to Theo. “What about you Theo? Any bird’s caught your eye recently?” He asked, knowing there was only one girl he wanted to take. 

“Not yet, don’t worry about me, I’ll definitely have a date for the ball.” He said mysteriously. 

__________ 

The day after the announcement, the castle was still alive with excitement for the upcoming events, even if they were relatively quite a while away. That didn’t stop the chatting in the corridors, girls asking each other who’d they’d like to take to the ball, boys teasing one another with jabs to their chests whenever their crushes walked by, as if to dare them to ask them out, and an overall feeling of anticipation was evident on her walk towards the Great Hall. It felt more like a school now, the carefree environment restored once again. 

“Do you have any plans on how to decorate for the carnival or the ball yet?” Luna asked her while taking a bite of her oatmeal. “If you need any assistance, I would be happy to help. It would keep my hands busy.” 

“That would be wonderful, thanks Luna,” she smiled at the younger girl “But as now right now, we don’t have any solid plans on the decorations. I would be happy to hear your ideas.” 

“I would suggest keeping the amount of mistletoe to a minimum, just to make sure nargles won’t be a problem,” the blonde girl said with a serious tone. “There will be enough trouble with the younger years as it is, and we don’t need anymore problems.” 

Even after going through capture and a war, Luna still didn’t lose her beliefs in the strange things she once did. Hermione could appreciate that, even if she thought the Ravenclaw witch didn’t make much sense at times. “I’ll keep that in mind.” 

They continued their discussion on potential colour schemes, events, and foods that both events could have. Hermione liked the idea of a very colourful and lively carnival, like those she saw in movies. While in the middle of discussing which berry would be best for the drinks, the entire hall grew quiet. Looking around, she caught Luna’s knowing smile and her gaze towards the main doors. Turning around, she caught sight of what the whole hall was staring at. 

Pansy Parkinson had entered the hall, hand-in-hand with Gryffindor’s very own Neville Longbottom. 

The entire hall was quiet for a few seconds, all eyes were on them, then the silence was replaced with a thick layer of hushed whispers. Hermione caught Neville turning a deep shade of red while Pansy drank in the attention. Pansy leaned into Neville, whispered something to him, then led him towards an empty table. 

“I thought you and Neville were together,” Ginny said to Luna, Hermione almost screamed when the redhead popped her head over her shoulder. She was crouched directly behind Hermione’s chair, making it seem like there was a floating head next to hers. 

“Ginny!” Hermione reprimanded, “you’ve really got to stop doing that.” 

“But it’s so fun,” the youngest Weasley laughed, then turned to Luna for her answer. 

“No, no, we were just good friends,” she replied easily, as though Neville and Pansy being together was the most normal thing in the world. 

“I could’ve sworn that he was in love with you,” Ginny continued, pulling her chair from the table next to theirs, Hermione didn’t even notice she was sitting right next to them. “He said as much last year.”

“It was a small infatuation, we agreed that being friends was the right way to go,” she said as she sipped on her pumpkin juice. 

“Odd, but anyway, what do you ladies say to preliminary dress shopping on the weekend?” Ginny asked, looking between the two witches. 

“Sure, it’ll be nice to spend time together.” Luna agreed, dabbing at the corner of her mouth with her napkin. 

“I’ll let you know during dinner,” Hermione replied, “I’ve got to make sure everything’s in order for the weekend first.” 

“You do realise that me asking was not actually asking, right? It’s just a heads up so you know when to get ready,” the redhead smirked, “either way, you’re coming. Just get all your duties in order, we’ll just be a few hours tomorrow afternoon.” 

“I thought as much,” Hermione sighed. But she did want to spend more time with the two witches. 

Ever since the start of term, she had been spending more time with the both of them, and she was starting to like their company almost as much as the boys. She never had many female friends, or friends in general. Back in the muggle world, the other kids didn’t like to spend much time with her, mainly because their choice of preferred activities clashed. Where the other kids liked to go out and play in the playground, she preferred to stay in and read. Harry and Ron were her first real friends, and Ginny and Luna were her first real female friends. 

Having her friends around her made her feel safe and accepted, two things she used to feel rather rarely. And after the Goyle incident, she was extra thankful that she had her friends. It was rare that Hermione would admit that she was afraid, it was nothing to be ashamed of, and being in Gryffindor and part of the Golden Trio had made admitting that she was scared even harder. But she could honestly admit that she was scared of Goyle. He had attacked her in public, in front of so many others, what would stop him from doing something else to her if she was alone with him? 

Ginny and Luna had not left her side the entirety of that day, even when she wanted to visit the library. Where Luna was more subtle with her intentions, which was mainly staying near Hermione and keeping her company, Ginny did not hide hers at all. Hermione knew they were watching out for her, making sure yesterday's events would not happen again, and for that, she loved the two younger girls even more. Their constant presence managed to calm her enough that she was able to get her agenda for the day done without a single intrusive thought. She had made sure everything was planned and set for the weekend, caught up on the class work that she missed yesterday, and completed all the homework she was assigned. 

The two girls had walked her back to her dorm, ignoring Hermione’s protests, and made sure she had gone in before they left. She had gone to bed that night with a weight lifted off her chest, almost like she had just let out a breath that she didn’t know she was holding in. 

The next morning, she woke up to the sound of pecking on her window. Turning to face it, she saw a brown owl tapping on the glass, there was a scroll tied around it’s ankle. She let the bird in, untied the parchment and fed the owl a small treat before it flew away. ‘We’re leaving for Hogsmead at one. Get your arse to the front gate by then, or we’re going to drag you from your dorm.’ Was printed on the parchment in Ginny’s rounded handwriting. She chuckled to herself and proceeded to stretch her sleepy muscles before jumping into the shower for a quick wash. 

When she entered the Great Hall she grabbed the first free Gryffindor chair she saw, her stomach was starting to make noise. She had a pleasant conversation about nothing in particular with Hannah while she ate her pancakes. After that, she met up with Malfoy in the library to get a few hours of research done before she went to the front gate. 

A couple of hours in, and she was beginning to feel frustrated once again. 

“Calm down,” Malfoy said to her, he had been becoming irritatingly adept in reading her emotions. 

“I’m not angry,” she huffed. 

“Frustrated more like it,” he replied coolly.

“How do you know that?” 

“Your face moves a lot, in case you didn’t know that,” he stated, his eyebrow quirking as he looked up from his book. “Do you not feel your face moving at all?”

She flushed, she had forgotten that she tended to express her emotions rather freely when she read, Harry and Ron had told her as much over the years. But she couldn’t help it, she reacted to whatever she read or whatever she felt, there wasn’t exactly a switch she could turn off for her facial expressions. “I like expressing what I am feeling,” she tried to cover her burning cheeks. 

“I didn’t say it was a bad thing. It’s just an observation,” his eyes went back to the book in front of him. “Have you found anything yet?” 

“Not yet,” she sighed, letting her annoyance show in her tone. “Did you?”

“Not a single thing,” he was much better at hiding his emotions, it sounded like he was talking about the weather. 

“Maybe we’re looking in the wrong section,” Hermione tried to brainstorm ideas. Surely this library had to have clues on whatever was going on with them. 

“Where do you suggest we look at then?” He asked as he closed the book he was reading. 

“I mean, we’ve mainly been looking at potions and spells in the English and Latin sections, right?” He nodded. “So maybe we have to look at books from other parts of the world. It’s very possible that there are spells and potions that weren’t translated into English or Latin, or that our ancestors have even heard of to put it into these books.”

“I get your point. I guess we can start with French, since we both understand it,” he started to stand up. “Keep reading, I’ll get whatever books I can find.”

He returned about fifteen minutes later with a stack of books levitating behind him. There were twenty eight books that he’d found. 

“Shall we dig in?” He gestured to the ridiculous tower of books that were precariously stacked. They returned all the books they had already read and dug into the new ones, starting from the very top. 

Three hours later, and they were still in the same spot, except now she had a French induced headache. She was fine whenever she spoke the language, but reading it, especially for an extended period of time, tended to make her head hurt. 

“Well, that’s one language half down,” together they had read half the stack. Hermione noted down the other books they hadn’t gotten to today before she returned all of them. “I’ll have to continue tomorrow, I’ve got plans at one.” Malfoy just nodded and started packing his things, she could hear his stomach. 

While making their way to the Great Hall, they discussed the financials of the events, mainly about how much they could allocate for each. Food and beverages should be rather inexpensive, as it would mostly be finger foods and the sort for both events, and the House elf’s could come up with some delicious recipes. They continued their discussion all throughout the meal, finally deciding on a budget for all aspects of both events. 

“Oh shoot, it’s almost time!” Hermione exclaimed when she caught a look at the clock. “I’ll share my notes with you when I get back, but I’ve got to go now. I’ll see you later.” She practically ran to the front gates, and sure enough, Ginny and Luna were there waiting for her. 

“Two minutes to spare,” Ginny said as she looked down at her watch. “You’re lucky, Mione. Though, I was looking forward to barging into your dorm.” 

The three witches made their way to Hogsmead, along with a good amount of the castle, seemed like everyone was going into town today. They stopped by the usual haunts, including a new shop that Madam Malkin had just opened here. It was significantly smaller than the shop in Diagon Alley, but it had quite a selection. 

“Do you have any colour in mind?” Luna asked.

“I was thinking of either a fiery red, or a navy blue,” Ginny said as she held up a red dress against her. “I’m still debating between long sleeves or sleeveless. What about you?”

“I quite like orange or pink,” the blonde floated towards the rack next to Ginny’s. “Do you have any preferences for colour, Hermione?”

“I think I would like a darker colour, I’m not as worried about the colour itself,” she held up a maroon dress and turned to the mirror in the middle of the shop. “What do you think?” 

Ginny and Luna turned to look at her. “It’s a nice colour, but that style is awful,” the redhead said, Luna nodded behind her. Ginny looked around before her eyes settled on a dress. “Here, how about this?” It was an emerald green dress with gold trimmings on the bodice. 

“Doesn't it look a little too… Slytherin-y?” She eyed the dress, but even as she said it, she couldn’t deny it was a beautiful dress. It looked like it was made for a royal. The gold detailing looked like vines making its way around the torso, up to the left shoulder where it continued into a mini cape. 

“Slytheirn’s don’t get to monopolise the colour green,” she replied, her hands on her hips in a very Molly-esque position. “Besides, I think you look good in green, that and blue.” 

“That’s true I guess, and I do like green,” Hermione continued to stare at the dress. “But don’t you think it’s too early to buy dresses? It’s only been a couple days since the announcement was made.”

“There’s no waiting period needed to buy a dress, Hermione,” Luna said in her airy voice. “If you find something that you really like, might as well go for it.” 

She tossed around the idea of buying a dress right then, it was true that she quite liked the dress, and it wasn’t too pricey either. It just seemed too rushed, no matter how much she liked the dress, she always thought of herself as someone who thought things through before doing something, and she definitely was not planning on buying a dress today. 

“Just try it on and decide after,” Ginny pushed the dress into her arms and ushered her into a changing room. 

She reluctantly got in and tried the dress on. She stepped into the dress, and was surprised how well it had fit her when she had brought it up, she thought it would be too long for her shorter stature. The bodice of the dress was a corset made up of a firmer fabric, while the skirt was made up of a beautiful, flowing silk that rippled when she moved. The mini one shoulder cape hung over her left shoulder and reached down to the small of her back. 

“Are you done yet?” Ginny asked from the other side of the changing room curtain. 

“I just need someone to help me lace up the back,” Hermione called back.

“Come out, I’ll do it for you,” Luna replied. Hermione grabbed the bottom of the dress and made her way out, it was just long enough that she wasn’t swimming in material, but it was also long enough that she could step on the hem and fall over. 

“You’re beautiful, Hermione!” Ginny exclaimed, putting her hand over her mouth. Hermione turned to the side to look at herself in a full length mirror, and she couldn't help but agree with Ginny. The green shade complimented her slightly tanned skin and her darker hair, and the cut of her dress showed off her slight curves just right. She was also glad that the dress had left just the right amount of skin showing, but still remained modest, not that she thought less about anyone who decided to embrace their bodies, she just was not one of them. 

“You look like you’re glowing,” Luna said as she tied off the ribbon. Even though the top was a corset, she could still breathe and move around normally in it, which she was very thankful for. 

“I think you should get it,” Ginny said, nodding her head. “This dress was made for you!” 

“Do you really?” Hermione asked, looking between the two girls, they kept nodding. She thought about it for a few moments. Buying a dress now would save her the trouble of finding one later on. And she suspected that she would have other, more pressing things on her plate in the near future. “Fine, I’ll get it.”

Ginny cheered while Luna’s smile just widened. After changing out of the dress and paying for it, they made their way to the Three Broomsticks for a quick tea before they headed back to the castle.


	14. It's Their Thing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the super late update, I just got a job and it's been zapping my energy and time. But I offer this long Hermione chapter (followed by a long Draco chapter) as an apology. I hope to continue to update more regularly, but I can't promise anything. Just know that I have not stopped updating this story. 
> 
> Song recs:  
> Frank Sinatra - My Way  
> Curley Gao - Fight of Your Life  
> My Chemical Romance - Sing

As Hermione sat at the dining table, drinking her morning cup of tea the next day, she heard a knock on the portrait hole. Malfoy had left slightly earlier as he had class, and Hermione didn’t feel like being surrounded by so many people just yet, so she had prepared a simple breakfast of toast and jam and relaxed in her empty dorm. 

When she went to check on who was outside, she was pleasantly surprised to see her visitor. “Oh, good morning, Luna,” Hermione greeted the blonde and stepped to the side to allow the girl in. 

A“I didn’t see you in the Great Hall, so I brought you a carrot muffin in case you were hungry,” the girl said as she held her up her hand and presented the orange-brown muffin. “I noticed you prefer carrot to chocolate.”

“Thanks Luna, I just didn’t feel like going down today. I’m surprised you noticed that,” she accepted the muffin and sat back down, she gestured for the girl to sit down. Most people would have just gotten her a chocolate muffin because while she did quite like chocolate, carrot muffins had chocolate muffins beat any day.

“I won’t be staying right now, I’ve got to go to Herbology, I just wanted to make sure you had eaten,” the blonde smiled. 

“That’s nice of you, but you don’t have to worry about me all the time, Luna. I’m fine most of the time,” she reassured the younger witch and chuckled to herself at her last statement. 

“It also helps calm me down,” the younger blonde said in an offhanded tone. 

“Well, if you’d like, I’ll appreciate a study partner tonight after classes,” she knew the girls were worried about her, and as much as she loved her friends, she didn’t want to become another thing they had to worry about. Especially after what everyone’s been through. 

Luna thought about it for a few seconds before replying, “I do have some Transfiguration homework that I need to get done by tomorrow. We can eat together then study after.”

“That sounds wonderful,” Hermione smiled. Luna smiled and nodded then she turned around and showed herself out.

The day went by rather quickly, and before she knew it, it was time for dinner. Hermione found the younger witch standing by the doors gazing up at the ceiling. 

“Luna,” she placed her hand lightly on her shoulder, taking her out of whatever thought she was in. 

“Oh, hello Hermione,” she smiled back. “Do you have any preferences on where to sit?” 

“No, I’m fine wherever.” 

They ended up sitting with Astoria and Susan, she was seeing more of these two witches in these few weeks than she had seen in the last few years. And she was glad she did, they were incredibly interesting and wonderful people.

Astoria was telling them about her plans of opening a center for werewolves and other magical creatures to get the help that they need, either with potions or just a place to sleep. Susan was so excited for Astoria and she had offered to help with making any potions that they might need. She was applying to apprentice under a very famous apothecary when she was done, and helping Astoria would also mean improving her skills. 

The thought of so many people wanting to help others, not just other witches and wizards, but magical creatures that were once shunned by most of the wizarding world, warmed her greatly. It was a silver lining of the war they had just gone through. 

Hearing about all the plans the two witches had for the future made Hermione think about what she wanted to do once she graduated. She hadn’t really thought about it as of late, she did have more pressing matters to tend to. She dismissed the thought, she had plenty of time to figure out what she wanted to do. 

Finding her parents was the only thing that came to her mind. After the war, she had been too tired and malnourished to properly function for a few weeks, let alone go to a different part of the globe and search for her parents. She had also thrown herself into the restoration efforts at Hogwarts, and had lived at the site while it was being rebuilt, only going to the Burrow occasionally when Ron or Harry had brought her back with them. The house that she grew up in remained empty as of now, she had not sold it off or been back to it since she left that day, going back to that empty house just seemed wrong. 

“Hermione, are you ready to leave?” Luna asked her, the other two witches were done with their dinner and had continued talking about their plans. Hermione looked down at her plate and noticed she only ate half her usual portion, but she nodded anyway, her appetite gone. They bid the two witches goodnight and they went to look for Ginny. 

“Ginny, would you like to come over to Hermione’s dorm to study for a while?” Luna asked when they had found the redhead. 

“Oh, I would love to, but I’ve already promised that I would spend time with Harry tonight. I haven’t seen him in a while,” Ginny replied. 

“That’s fine, Gin. Maybe next time,” Hermione smiled. 

When they had entered, the first thing she noticed was a flash of black and blonde, then the yelling. 

“Get back here, Zabini!” Malfoy was yelling at his friend as he chased him around the couches. 

“You’re going to have to catch me!” Blaise replied in a sing-song manner, clearly taunting the slightly shorter boy. 

“Blaise, just give the man what he wants, you’re both giving me a headache,” a third voice said a bored tone, probably Theo. 

“But that’s no fun is it?” Blaise continued to rile the other boy up. “Come on Drakey, you’re going to have to try harder if you’re going to get it.” 

“Zabini, I swear. I’m going to end you when I get my hands on you!” Malfoy growled. When Hermione finally saw what the boys were fighting over, she nearly fell onto the floor laughing. 

It was a piece of candy. 

They were fighting like children over a piece of candy. 

“What’s going on here?” Hermione got out in between laughs.

“Oh, hey ‘Mione,” Blaise stopped and smiled at her long enough for Malfoy to snatch the desired item from his friends hand. “Drakey here just needed a little exercise.”

At that, Malfoy snorted, unwrapped the candy and tossed it into his mouth. “Blaise was just being a little shite.” 

“Well, Luna and I are going to study here if that’s alright with you guys,” she looked around and saw Theo. “Oh hello, Theo,” she greeted him, but he just grunted in response and continued reading the book in his hands. 

“Please excuse our dear Theo, he’s in a mood,” Blaise whispered loudly as he made his way over to where they had taken their things out onto the kitchen table. “Hello Lovegood, what are you ladies working on tonight?” 

“Hello Blaise,” Luna replied. “I’ve got a Transfiguration assignment to complete. Are you studying or just hanging around?”

“Studying, or at least we should be studying,” Blaise and Luna fell into easy conversation for a few minutes while Hermione started working on finding the page she had last read. Hermione has always been surprised by people who made friends easily, Blaise was one of those people. He somehow made everyone he talked to comfortable and wanted to continue talking to him, he actually listened to people and cared about what they had to say. 

“What are Wrackspurts?” he asked after Luna mentioned them. 

“They’re invisible creatures that fly into your ear and make your brain go fuzzy,” was the answer she had heard countless times, it was Luna’s default answer to what it was. 

“Fuzzy? What kind of fuzzy?” Even Hermione could tell that Luna was slightly shocked that he wanted to know more, most people would have just dismissed it and let that be the end of that conversation. 

“They make you think of only negatives, it would make it almost impossible to think of anything good while they’re in your brain,” Luna’s smile widened as she talked about how the invisible creatures messed with one’s mind and how to get rid of them. 

“Oi, Zabini!” Theo called over to the Italian boy, “Get your arse back here and study, we’ve got a quiz tomorrow!”

“Well, it seems like I have to be places. I shall catch up with you another time,” he said in a dramatic tone and walked ten paces back to the couches where his friends were rolling their eyes at him, making Hermione and Luna giggle at his antics. 

Their study session progressed as usual, the silence only broken every once in a while when either of them needed to clarify something about the work. The boys seemed to be immersed with studying as well, but their breaks were closer together and noisier. It didn’t bother Hermione, she was used to studying in the Gryffindor common room with Harry and Ron. 

“Headache again, Theo?” Malfoy looked over at his friend who was rubbing at the temples of his forehead. 

“Yeah, the same thing again. Why is reading so hard?” Theo sighed, barely loud enough for Hermione to hear. 

“Maybe it’s the amount of time you spend reading, I know my head starts to hurt when I read for too long,” Blaise supplied. Hermione could tell that Luna was also listening to their conversation, but the two girls were not familiar enough with Theo to voice anything to him. 

“Well, whatever it is, I hope it goes away soon. The letters keep swimming around when I try to focus,” the brown haired boy grumbled, rubbing his eyes before returning to his book. 

Another hour and a half passed before Luna started to pack her things away. “Would you like me to walk you back?” Hermione asked the younger witch. 

“No, it’s quite alright. I’m fine walking back to the tower,” she replied with a dreamy smile, yawning a bit towards the end. “I can tell you’re rather tired, so it would be best if you slept early tonight.” 

“Are you sure?” 

“Yes, very much so,” the blonde girl replied.

“We can walk her back, ‘Mione,” Bliase said from the couches, the two Slytherin’s had also packed their satchels and were ready to leave. “We were just leaving.”

“That would be dandy,” the Ravenclaw smiled at the two boys and headed over to the portrait hole. “I had a nice time tonight, I hope we can do this more often.” 

“I did too,” Hermione said truthfully, “we can make it a weekly thing if you’d like, and we can ask Ginny as well.” 

“I would like that very much.” And with that, they walked out of the portrait hole, Blaise asking Luna random questions. 

“Did you get your work done tonight?” Malfoy asked her once their friends were gone. 

“Yeah, most of it anyway. But they’re for next week, so I’m good on all my homework for this week,” she smiled proudly, she never liked last minute work, so she would always make it a point to get whatever work she got done as soon as she got it. 

“Why am I not surprised at that?” Malfoy chuckled, “Do you want some tea before heading the sack?” 

“Oh no, I’m good, thank you. Caffeine messes with my sleep,” she declined his offer. “I better head to bed now, or I might just sleep on the floor. Goodnight Malfoy.” 

“Goodnight Granger,” he replied as he started up the kettle. Hermione was asleep before she heard the water boil. 

In potions class the next day, Slughorn had revealed their term project. Each group had to choose a potion to make from a list of ten advance level potions, and all potions took at least a month to brew. Hermione and Malfoy had chosen to do hellebore draught, the potion that they thought most students would not pick as it was one of the hardest potions to brew. 

“When should we meet?” Hermione asked Malfoy at the end of the class. The potion would need tending to once a week, so they had to agree on when to meet. “Thursdays are good for me, Fridays are too I guess. I usually patrol on Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays.” 

“My patrols are on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays, so Thursdays would work for me,” Malfoy agreed. “We should come up with a timetable to keep track of all the ingredients we put in, so we don’t make any mistakes.”

“We can fine tune this further tonight, I promised to meet Harry and Ron in the Gryffindor common room soon,” she looked down at her wristwatch, noticing that she was going to be late. “I’ve got to get going now, we’ll talk tonight.” She saw him nod then she rushed to the other side of the castle.

She was five minutes late, Hermione Granger was never late. 

“Do my eyes betray me, or is Hermione Jean Granger actually late?” Ron teased her when she jumped through the portrait hole. He had the biggest smirk on his face, so big that Hermione thought the smirk would stick to his face. 

“Oh shut it, Ronald,” she chided him. “I was on the other side of the castle.”

“What class did you have?” Harry asked. 

“Potions. We got our term assignment today, and I can already tell it’s going to be tedious,” she continued to tell them about the potion they had chosen whilst she brought out the books she was going to need. “So what shall we start with today?” 

“Ron and I have a Charms test coming up, I think Daniels is going to be there,” Harry had briefly mentioned Daniels to her before, the Auror that was overseeing their special courses. According to Harry, he came in whenever there was a test in any of their classes to determine how they were progressing. “We might need a little bit of help with preparation.” 

And prepare was what they did. Hermione liked learning new things, and there were some things that the two boys were taught that Hermione didn’t know, spells that were needed by all Aurors. An hour went by with Hermione testing the two boys, who had done rather well by her standards. On one of their breaks, they had noticed Neville walk in. 

“Neville!” Hermione called over to him, she hadn’t had a proper conversation with the boy since term started. He walked over to them and she gave him a big hug. “How’ve you been?” 

“I’ve been better,” he confessed. 

“Anything we can help with?” she motioned for him to sit.

“It’s mostly just people staring and whispering whenever I pass by,” he sounded more annoyed than anything else. Hermione had almost forgotten that her friend was dating Pansy Parkinson. 

“It’s about you and Pansy, isn’t it?” 

“Yeah,” he just sighed. 

“How did you guys even start talking? No offence mate, but you’re from two completely different worlds,” Ron asked.

Neville seemed to hesitate, but decided he wanted to talk to someone. “We started talking soon after the battle. She had appeared at the greenhouse one day, at first I thought she was up to no good, you know, the usual Slytherin mischief. But then she kept coming back and eventually we started to bond over our love for plants and Herbology.” 

“How long has it been?” Harry asked. 

“A few months now, almost five,” he said shyly, a red blush starting to creep onto his face. “I really like her.” he added very softly. 

“Well, I am happy for you,” Hermione said firmly. “Anyone who thinks they have anything to say about it can talk to me.” And she meant every word she said. While she was not a fan of Pansy, she could see that the girl did make her friend happy, and his happiness was all she could ask for. 

“Thanks ‘Mione,” he smiled, his face had turned a bright shade of red, almost matching the carpet in the common room. They talked for a while more and eventually he joined them in their study session. 

It was beginning to feel like old times. 

After a couple hours of studying with the boys, Ginny had shown up and declared that they were going to spend some girl time together. The redhead didn’t give her any chance to decline, not that she would have anyway, and packed her things for her and dragged her away from the table. 

Ginny had decided that she needed a walk, as if her prefect duties didn’t involve a healthy amount of walking already. 

“But this is walking with a friend,” Ginny reasoned, linking their arms together. “It’s the company that makes all the difference.” Hermione just rolled her eyes and swatted the other girl’s arm lightly. They continued walking around the grounds and chatting about nothing in particular. 

“How are you though?” the younger witch asked her. 

“I’ve been fine, busy, but nothing I can’t handle.”

“I don’t mean that, I mean how are you really?” she pressed on. “We haven’t had a real chance to talk since the whole Crabble attack, and I worry about you.”

Hermione thought about it for a few breaths, weighing the pros and cons of telling her everything - she tallied more pros than cons. She took a deep breath before she talked, in hopes that it would calm her nerves, it did shitall. 

“I’ve actually been going through something,” she started, Ginny turned to look at her, they had stopped walking. “It’s not pleasant, actually, it’s rather nasty and dangerous. I’m not sure if I would get you in danger if I told you about it.”

“I’m a strong girl, I can handle it as long as you want to tell me.” 

“Well…” she tried to start, how does one start explaining that they have been cursed to have reality-bending nightmares, while also being connected to their former school rival who is experiencing the same things as she is, as well as having two kids in said nightmares that both creep the hell out of her and make her want to hug them and never let them go? So Hermione just started from the beginning, which was two or so weeks ago. She explained as simply as she could about the nightmares, how they started, how she knew Malfoy was connected to her, how she knew that these dreams had a more insidious intent behind them, how they have been trying to research what was happening to them but have found nothing so far. She told her about how scared she was to walk around alone because of the attack, and that she knew what she and Luna was doing for her, and how grateful she was to have them as friends. She told her everything. 

By the end of it, Hermione felt relieved that someone other than Malfoy knew about what was happening to them. Ginny didn’t speak for a few moments, instead she just pulled her in and hugged her for a long while. Hermione was not one to cry much, but the feeling of comfort and the relief of not having to hide what was tormenting her, and all her tears just started to fall. Hermione was glad that they had been walking, they were by the Black Lake now and there was no one around them. 

She didn’t know how long she had been crying for, but Ginny held her the entire time, rubbing slow circles into her back. When she finally calmed down enough, she released herself from the hug and wiped her eyes with her sleeve. “Thanks for listening, Gin,” she got out between sobs. 

“We’re going to figure this out ‘Mione,” she started, “I’m going to make sure whoever did this to you gets what’s coming to them. I promise that.” 

She smiled at the determined fire in the redheads eyes and could feel that she meant every word. “Just… don’t tell Ron or Harry. They’ve got enough to deal with, and they deserve a normal year.” 

“So do you Hermione, probably more than anyone else.” Hermione just nodded at her words, but she still didn’t want to tell the boys, they just might tear the castle apart. “Is there anything I can help you with? I want to help.”

“Malfoy and I have been trying to read all the books in the library to get a clue on what this is. We think it’s either a potion or a spell, or both. When we have a rough idea of what it is, we will go to McGonagall and ask for her advice. She just might let us use the restricted section.” They had sat by the lake, it was the best place to talk, no one else was around, and there was a gentle breeze flowing from the lake. “We’ve just about read all the books in English and found nothing so far. So we’re starting to look into French books.”

“I can definitely help you with that. Charlie’s been teaching me Romanian, I’d like to think I’m pretty fluent,” she said proudly, but Hermione could sense the jest in her words and chuckled. “I’ll help with whatever I can, you just need to tell me.” 

“Thanks Gin,” she smiled.

“I think you should tell Luna, that is if you’re okay with her knowing,” Ginny remarked. “She knows more than most people think, and she just might know what is happening to you.” 

“I don’t mind telling her, I just don’t want to burden her with this,” she sighed. “It’s a lot to take in, and I know she’s been suspecting something already, she has practically glued herself to my side since I left the hospital wing.” 

“You’re our friend ‘Mione, we’ll do anything to protect you, it’s not a burden,” Gin said softly. “I can be there when you tell her, if you’d like.” 

“That would be nice, thanks.” So they went off, partially looking for the Ravenclaw girl, and partially just walking around and talking to each other. 

They had found Luna by the bridge, she seemed to be looking for something below. 

“Good evening, Luna,” Hermione and Ginny greeted the girl. 

“Ah, that's where it went,” Luna said when she saw the two girls. She reached somewhere behind Hermione and plucked a small flower from the ground and placed it in her hair. “Good evening. How have you been this evening?”

“Things could be worse,” Ginny said cheekily, the blonde just nodded in understanding. “Hermione’s actually gotta tell you something, if you are willing to listen.” At the blonde’s nod, Hermione cleared her throat. 

And so Hermione started telling the Ravenclaw witch what was happening to her, the witch for her part, just stood by Hermione and had started to plait and braid her hair. She talked for what seemed like hours, explaining everything that had happened to her thus far, with much more structure than when she had told Ginny. When she was done, she looked at Luna, whose dreamy stare had a little more focus in them than usual. 

“I’ve sensed that something’s been going on, but I didn’t want to intrude,” Luna nodded. She reached into her own messy plait and took one of the flowers that was nestled there, it was a brilliant blue one, rather small but still beautiful. Luna’s small fingers worked the flower into Hermione’s mane and smiled softly at her. “I hope that makes you feel better, the talking I mean, I know the flower will start to work it’s magic soon enough.” Hermione smiled at the witch and thanked her for listening, she smiled and patted her hand. “I can start reading the Russian books if you’d accept my help.” 

“How did you know about the books?” Ginny asked the blonde girl, Hermione had not yet mentioned the research she and Malfoy were doing. 

“Quite obvious really, it’s Hermione and Draco. They read. It’s their thing,” Luna answered simply, she tied the last plait with a small elastic. Hermione noticed she was one of the few people in her friend group that used Malfoy’s given name.

“Makes sense,” Ginny replied. “We can meet up with you and Malfoy whenever you two research, after all, the more the merrier.”

Hermione once again thanked whatever entity or being or the universe that she had such amazing friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a review :) It helps me learn.


	15. What Fresh Hell?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for being so patient with my irregular updates. Please let me know if you are interested in more solo chapters or if you prefer the normal way. 
> 
> Song recs:  
> Edith Paif - La Vie En Rose  
> Somi - What You Waiting For  
> Leon Thomas III - 365 Days

“You’re cutting it close,” Draco said as he inspected his nails. He had been waiting in the prefects meeting room waiting for Granger for almost ten minutes now. 

“Malfoy!” she jumped, she was rather easy to startle. “What are you doing here? I’m supposed to be doing rounds with Alexander.”

“I know,” his eyes never left his nails, “he came down with something, so I took his shift.” 

“Oh, is he alright?” she asked, moving to the other side of the room to get things ready for rounds. 

“From what I saw, he has a pretty nasty case of the flu, but other than that, he seemed fine.”

“That’s good then, but we better be off now,” Granger gathered her things into a small bag then headed out the door first, he followed soon after. “This is our first round duty together.” It sounded like a statement more than anything else. 

“I suppose it is,” he never really noticed they had never done rounds together, he did see her nearly everyday after all. 

They carried on walking around the castle, and other than catching a couple fifth years leaving the library late, nothing eventful happened. They were almost done with their rounds, just a few corridors away from the prefects meeting room, when Hermione slowed her steps and spoke. 

“I told Ginny and Luna.” Draco stopped walking and turned to face her, she just stared straight ahead. It took him a few seconds for him to fully comprehend what she had said, but when he had finally registered what she was talking about and his eyes widened.

“Are you mad? Did you not think that it would be dangerous for them? The two of us being targeted is bad enough, we don’t need more people getting hurt because of… whatever this is!” He flung his hands around for emphasis, he tended to speak very quickly when he was caught off-guard. 

“No, I am quite sane, thank you very much,” she huffed, finally meeting his eyes, her hands folding in front of her. He could tell that she was going to argue, her eyes were on fire. “And I did consider the danger, but I also know that there’s safety in numbers. And those girls are strong and smart, more than most people give them credit for.” 

“We are strong and smart too, but look where we are!” he pinched the bridge of his nose, the frustration he felt was starting to show in his voice. 

“Yes, but we are the targets, if whoever is doing this to us wanted to attack them as well, they would have done it by now. Think about it Malfoy, it’s been weeks and no one else has been sent to the hospital wing more than I have, so I’m pretty sure that we are their main targets,” she seemed to be reasoning with him. 

He knew that she had a point, and with more people knowing about their predicament, the higher the chances of finding out what was happening to them. He sighed, “I understand where you’re coming from, I just wished that you would have discussed it with me before you told them. I am involved in this after all.”

He saw Granger’s face redden, and the raging fire that was in her eyes dimmed slightly. “I know, and I am sorry. I was not planning on telling them either, it’s just been a really stressful few weeks, and I just needed to talk to someone about it. But if it makes it any better, I know that I trust those girls with my life, and they would never tell a soul unless I asked them too.”

He nodded, he knew that both witches were fierce friends, and more loyal than anything. He took a couple of breaths before continuing, “so, why not Potter and the Weasel? Aren’t they supposed to be your best friends?” 

She just looked down and shook her head, “I don’t want them to get distracted, they’ve got Auror training and exams to get through. They’re both doing so well this year, I’ve never seen them so focused on something. And after all that they’ve been through, they deserve a break.” 

“And we don’t?” he raised his eyebrow at her.

“We don’t have a choice. But they do, and I can control that. So I will.” She said those words with such finality, he didn’t doubt that she would fight him if he attempted to tell dumb and dumber. 

“So bloody Gryffindor,” was all he said, she just smiled up at him, and he could almost say that they were friends. Releasing a breath, he said “well, if you’re going to let other people know, then I probably should too.”

“The more people that can help, the better. But they have to be trusted, we don’t want word of this getting out and causing unnecessary panic.” She was just reading his mind at this point. 

“Yeah, yeah, I know. It’ll probably just be Blaise and Theo anyway,” he shrugged. “There’s no one else they would talk to, not about this anyway.” 

She looked at him for a few seconds, then nodded her head. “If you say you trust them, then that’s good enough for me.” 

He smiled, “are you saying you trust me, Granger?” 

“Oh, definitely not,” he could tell that her voice was full of jest. “I’m not about to sign my soul to the devil. Call it… a necessary evil.” That just made him chuckle. 

They finally made it back to their dorm and went straight to their rooms. 

It was after Muggle studies the next day that Draco decided that he was going to tell the boys, the sooner he told them, the faster it’d go by. Or at least that was what he hoped for. They were lounging on the couches in the dorm, it seemed to be their new favourite hangout. 

“So, when do you think it started?” Theo asked no one in particular. Draco knew what he was talking about, the Neville and Pansy fiasco. 

“Do you think it’s even real?” He asked back. He really hadn’t been keeping up with any of his Slytherin friends, save for Blaise and Theo. 

“Seems real, but then again, it’s Panse. She’s always got something up her sleeve,” Theo sounded amused. “I just wonder, why Longbottom? I mean, if it's not real, and she’s just playing around, why not use someone else? Isn’t Longbottom a certified hero? I can’t imagine the backlash she’d get if she was found to be playing him.”

“Maybe that’s why.” 

“I, for one, think it’s real,” Blaise piped up. He was playing with a piece of parchment, folding it around, his eyes never leaving the paper. 

“Why’s that?” Theo raised his eyebrows. 

“I talked to Panse last night, she told me. Probably not everything, and I don’t want to know everything, but she told me enough that I believe her.”

Draco knew that Blaise wanted to tell them something else, but then decided against it. And if Blaise didn’t think it was a good idea to share, he was not going to press him. Privacy was hard to come by, especially in a castle full of people who still think that you’re the enemy. Theo didn’t seem to pick this up, and just shrugged at Blaise's reasoning. 

Like a band-aid, just get it done quickly.

“I’ve actually got something I need to tell you two,” Draco started. The two boys turned to look at him, Blaise’s eyes finally leaving the paper. ‘Quickly,’ he reminded himself. “It’s probably dangerous that I’m telling you this, but I think it’d be better if you two knew. But I want to make sure that you’re going to be okay with any potential danger that this might put you in.” Even he knew that he was rambling and trying to buy time, the other two boys caught on immediately. 

“Just spit it out, mate,” an annoyed Theo snapped at him. 

“I think that someone’s out to get Granger and me,” he said in a speed that could only be described as ‘breakneck’. He looked between the other two boys, trying to make out if they had understood what he said. 

“What’s brought this thought on?” Blaise asked as he leaned forward until his elbows were on his knees and his brows were furrowed, he had abandoned the piece of parchment. 

“Dreams. We’ve been having… intense dreams,” he tried to explain, but this just garnered confused looks from both boys. “Basically, we’ve been having dreams that connect us, and whatever that is done to us in those dreams, comes true in real life.” 

“What do you mean ‘whatever is done’?” Blaise’s eyebrows seemed to merge into a line. 

“As in, anything, like injuries or curses, that is done to us in these dreams, we get them in real life too. That’s why Granger had gone to the hospital wing that night on the first week back, she was hit with the cruciatus curse in real life while I had dreamt the same thing at the same time. I also got this,” he pulled his sleeve up and showed them the healing mess of flesh that was once the Dark Mark. 

“Bloody hell,” Theo said under his breath, Blaise seemed too shocked to say anything in those seconds. The wound had healed rather well, no infection and it had scarred over by now, magic really was wonderful sometimes. All that was left on his left forearm was a bunch of scars and hints of black here and there. 

“How long has this been happening for?” Blaise looked up at him.

“Since the first week, so a few weeks now.” 

“And you’re just telling us now? What the fuck mate?” Theo was starting to get angry, but he could tell that his anger was not entirely aimed at him, but more so at the situation he was in. Theo had an unhealthy way of dealing with his emotions. 

“Trust me, if it were up to me, I wouldn’t be in this situation either,” Draco pulled his sleeve back down and leaned into the sofa. “But Granger said that I should tell someone about this, so here we are.” 

At that Theo just rolled his eyes and scoffed, “of course she did.” 

“Mate, you’re going to have to get over whatever grudge you have against her. We’re going to help them both,” Blaise scolded the other boy, but Draco could tell that Theo was ignoring him. 

“Blaise is right, Theo,” Draco started, and he knew that the other boy was just getting more irritated. And the more irritated Theo got, the less he listened. So he changed the subject to telling them about the dreams they’ve had so far, which seemed to bring both boys' attention back to him and the issue at hand. 

“Atone,” Blaise rubbed his chin, “you’re sure that’s what was written?”

“Assuming I can still read and remember things, I’d say I'm positive.” 

Blaise just ignored his snark, “so do you have any ideas so far? Is it a potion or a spell?” 

“We haven’t had any luck so far, but we’ve just started looking into the potions books in other languages,” then Draco continued to tell them about what they’ve been doing, which was essentially reading and more reading. 

“So, what you’re telling me is, you know nothing?” Theo said bluntly. “And that you think that the answer is in a book that might be in another language?” Draco just nodded, he hated not knowing things. 

“I can get started on the Italian and Korean books, I’ll have my mom send me some books from our library too,” Blaise pulled out a piece of parchment and started to pen a letter to his mother. “I’m going to need to borrow your owl, what’s its name again?” 

“Leo,” Theo answered instead, “I’m gonna have to borrow it too.” 

“So you’ll help?” Draco asked the brown haired boy. 

“Obviously I’ll help. But no promises on becoming best friends with Granger,” Theo warned. “I’ll start with Spanish.” And that was the best Draco could ask for from Theo.

He knew that the boy still had a lot of prejudices against Muggleborns, hell, he did too until very recently. And he had a feeling that if he and Granger weren’t in this mess, he might still have those prejudices. But he had known that his fathers teachings were flawed since the day he met her. There was something in the way she was so sure of herself and her knowledge that had intimidated him in the beginning. That, and that she had beat him and all the other Purebloods in every single class, then proved her ability mor even more by fighting in and winning a godsdamned war.

He still had to apologize to her, something he knew he was not good at, or very enthusiastic about. But he knew it needed to be done. She might be working with him because of Head duties and whatever curse they are under, but he needed her to know that he was sorry for all those years he and his friends had tormented her. He was less sorry about Potter and Weasel, he might have been a git to them, but they were gits right back. 

They eventually made their way to dinner, then decided to hang out in the Slytherin common room that night. Theo had promised a couple other eighth years a few rounds of Exploding Snap, Draco and Blaise decided to tag along for old times sake. A few hours later, and many rounds of Exploding Snap, Draco finally made his way out of the Slytherin common room and back up to his dorm. 

When he entered the living room, he noticed a head of messy brown hair laying on the red couch, Granger had fallen asleep with a book on her chest. He had just decided on making himself a cup of tea before bed when he heard the book thump onto the plush carpet, and he turned around to see Granger tossing in her sleep. 

“No… no….” He guessed she was having a nightmare, and from what he could tell, it was a normal nightmare, not a cursed one. “Please… we didn’t… we didn’t… steal it…”

He froze. Instantly, he knew what she was dreaming about, and a shock of ice went through him

That day. 

The spot where the Dark Mark once was tingled with phantom pricks, making him have gooseflesh. He placed his mug down and walked over to her, intending to gently wake her up. 

“Granger,” he raised his hand to place on her shoulder, but before he could make contact, she sprang up and screamed. Her eyes flew open, but he could tell that she was still in the dream. He grabbed onto her shoulders, trying to make her realise that she was awake and safe, but she just kept screaming and crying. 

Then he did the one thing he could think of, the same thing that she had done for him not too long ago; sing. He sucked a breath in and sang the first song that came to his head, a song his mother used to sing to him when he was a boy. He started off softly, he hadn’t sang in many years. He slowly hugged her and started: 

“Quand il me prend dans ses bras. Il me parle tout bas.” She was still screaming, her mind still not letting her get out of that memory. 

“Je vois la vie en rose.” Her screaming slowly started to turn into crying. 

“Il me dit des mots d’amour. Des mont de tous les jours.” Now she was just crying and sobbing. He just held her and patted her back softly. 

“Et ça me fait quelque chose.” Her crying had started to quiet down. 

“Il est entré dans mon cœur. Une part de bonheur.” The crying became soft sobs now.

“Dont je connais la cause.” He could feel her head starting to loll to the side and her breaths evening out, she must be falling back to sleep. 

“C’est lui pour moi, moi pour lui dans la vie.” He adjusted himself to lay her back down on the couch. 

“Il me l’a dit, l’a juré pour la vie.” He placed her head back on the pillow she was laying on, her eyes were closed once again, breathing more evenly now, a sob breaking through every now and then. 

“Et dès que je l’aperçois. Alors je sens en moi.” He gently removed his hand from her head, making sure that her head was not in a funny angle. 

“Mon cœur qui bat.” He finished off the chorus of the song by conjuring a blanket to place over her. She snuggled into the blanket in her sleep, and watching her do so made something in Draco’s stomach flip. She looked so vulnerable, she still had tears running down her cheeks, which he gently thumbed away. 

After a few moments, he finally shook himself out of wherever his mind went and returned to his tea. He proceeded to sit on the other couch facing Granger instead of going straight to his room like he had originally planned, he just wanted to make sure that she was sleeping soundly. 

He had thought about moving her to her bed, where she would definitely be more comfortable, but decided against it. He didn’t want to intrude into her personal space, he might be an arsehole, but he was raised with manners. He had ensured that she was sound asleep then stoked the fire a little before retiring to his room. 

Merlin knew he needed his sleep. 

And surely the fates were laughing at him. 

His dream tonight started off normal. It was one he had had many times before; a dream from when he was younger, not a nightmare, but an actual dream. He was sitting at the main table in the dining hall in the Manor, his father sat at the head of the table and his mother sat opposite him. It was Christmas morning, he could tell from the decorations that littered the walls, ceilings, and basically every empty spot that could be decorated, his mother loved the holidays. It was a simple dream, it was just a meal with his parents, before he went to Hogwarts, before Voldemort, before everything. A simple time.

But just as he thought it was going to be a nice night, the dream shifted, and he was once again in the same mansion from all the other nightmares. 

Tonight, the mansion was full of people, all dressed to the nines and donning a mask, a masquerade ball. He too was wearing a mask, he could not tell what his mask looked like, but it covered only the area around his eyes, leaving the lower part of his face bare. He stood there for a few moments, not wanting to do anything in fear of what might happen. Then everyone started to move towards the ballroom, the one where he and Granger had almost been squashed to death. He hesitantly followed the crowd, if they were moving somewhere, that meant that he was to follow them. 

At first, the ballroom looked like any other ballroom, full of people milling about, a small group of people playing instruments towards one corner of the room, and servers moving around serving drinks. He knew that Granger would be somewhere in the room, but he had yet to spot her, there were just too many people! 

He slowly spun on the spot to try to locate her messy brown hair, but try as he might, she was nowhere to be found. 

“Malfoy?” he heard someone say his name from behind him, he spun and saw who he thought was Granger standing a few meters away. Of course, when he looked far, she was near. He moved towards her and met near the main doors, making sure to stay away from the walls. “It is you right?” 

“Obviously, Granger,” he reached to pull his mask off, but when his hand made contact with the mask, he found that he could not remove it. It was stuck on his face. “I can’t take this thing off.” 

Granger grabbed her dark mask, hers covered her entire face, leaving only her eyes visible. She pulled on it a couple times, “I can’t take mine off either, so I will assume this is part of the game.”

Game. Is this what it was to whichever bastard who cursed them? “I would think so.” 

“Well, what are we supposed to be doing here?” A good question. He didn’t have the answer. 

“I don’t know.” 

“Wait, Malfoy…” Granger paused and turned her head to either side slowly, “can you understand what they’re saying?” 

He tried to listen in on the discussion the couple nearest to them was having, it was loud enough that he could make out the sounds, but he did not understand a single word. “What language are they speaking?” 

“I can’t tell… doesn’t sound like anything I’ve heard before,” Granger paused and tilted her head to her left, trying to catch whatever the group next to her was saying. “I still can’t make it out. It sounds…” 

“Ancient,” he finished for her. It was like a lost language, not Latin or Sanskrit, maybe something even older. Granger nodded, he could tell she was slightly alarmed. If this was the language that the spell or potion was in, they are going to have a much harder time trying to figure this out. 

She lowered her head and whispered to him, “what in the bloody hell are we supposed to do now?” 

In an equally low voice, he replied “just remember that whatever’s doing this to us, they want us to atone for something.” 

As soon as he said those words, the entire hall became silent, the music had stopped as did the shuffling of people walking about. He glanced up and peered around them. Every single person in that room stood facing them. They just stood there, unmoving, like mannequins. 

“Oh, what fresh hell is this now?” He said under his breath, subconsciously moving slightly closer to Granger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a review :D


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